
Book J^t^(^ 



Copyright 1^°. 



^ 



Zj 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSnV 



THE 

ELIZABETH WHITMAN 

MYSTERY 



ELIZABETH AVIIITMAN'S FAMILY C^ONNECTIONS. 

II Rev. .Solomon Stoddari), 

JU44-n29, uC Nonhainptun. 



Rev. 



ESTH Klt^=^Rov. Tl 



Vhitman, of I STOIinARIl 
Farniington. b. I(i80. 



I THAN Whit- I Trum 

I Wn:T.MAN. MAN. | R.LI, 

I of Hartford, I 

i70s/9-mii. 1 















Foster, 


Webster, 


of Hri(;l, 


who was 


and aunt 




at KiUing- 


,.E Prof. 


nK;-i82 


ly, Conn., 








Webster, 
of HarVrd 

College. 
Autho? of 













Wll 1 1 BUCKMIS 


Emv!^,ns, "nl 

nos-nw. 




NT. 


Middle 




1 


riKRRK-=_FRAN<-KS 

nr,ii-is2ti, i d. luuo. 


EdwTbd^ 


=I!cv. Aaron 

Birr. 

President of 

N°w!fe'rsej 
(Nassau 
Uall). 


Mkuita- 

UKL 

JiUSSELL. 


Wads- Uv 
sarrM.'c. •• 



Deacon John 
Whitman. 



Daniel N 
Foster. F 



; 1 

Deacon=MAKY Rev. Isaac 

John Foster. Foster, o 

Whitman, Stafford. 
of Stow, 

1717-1703. 



Rev. Em- 
erson 

Foster, 

who was 
at Killing- 
ly, Conn., 

1774-82 ? 



IIannahz 
dau. Grant 
Webster, 
and aunt 
of Prof. 
John W. 
Webster, 
of Harv'rd 

College. 
Author of 
"The Co- 
quette." 



Rev. JcEPH 
Fost^ter, 
of Bri^s- 

tonX 
1763-ia2. 






THE 

ELIZABETH WHITMAN 

MYSTERY 

AT THE OLD BELL TAVERN IN DANVERS 

A Study of "Eliza Wharton," the heroine 
of a famous New England Romance 

BY 
CHARLES KNOWLES BOLTON 

"No love hath she, no understanding friend," 




PBABODY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
PSABOUY, MASSACHUSETTS, 
I913 



^o?^ 'L, 






Copyright, 1912, by The Peabody Historical Society. 



THREE HUNDRED COPIES 

PRINTED BY S. E. CASSINO CO. 

SALEM. MASSACHUSETTS 



©CIAn51078 



CONTENTS. 

Page 

Preface xi 

I. A Strange Lady at the Bell 

Tavern 9 

II. The Last Rites 33 

III. The Author of "The Coquette" 51 

IV. Elizabeth and her Friends 75 
V. Elizabeth's Choice of Danvers 99 

VI. The Man of Her Heart 109 

VIL A Final Word i33 # 
Notes on Various Editions of 

"The Coquette'^ i47 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Elizabeth Whitman's family connec- 
tions — Frontispiece. 

Wall Paper from the chamber occu- 
pied by Elizabeth Whitman at the 
Bell Tavern. Now at the Peabody 
Historical Society .... 13 

Door-step of the Bell Tavern, removed, 
with other stones when the Tavern 
was torn down, by John Hart, who at 
the time built himself a house on 
Wallis Street. Presented to the Pea- 
body Historical Society by Mrs. 
Oliver Emerson .... 23 

Table book-rack used by Elizabeth 
Whitman while at the Bell Tavern. 
Now owned by C. R. Parker, 
Auburndale .... 25, 28 

The old Main Street Burial Ground, 
where EUzabeth Whitman is buried 31 

Inventory of the effects left at the Bell 
Tavern at the death of Miss Whit- 
man. Given to the Peabody His- 
torical Society by Charles K. Bolton, 
Shirley 38, 40 

Silver spoon found in the Bell Tavern, 
1840, with other articles belonging to 
Elizabeth Whitman. Given to Mrs. 
Lyman P. Osborn, for the Peabody 
Historical Society by Mrs. Emma 
(Trask) Wood of East Boston . 42 

Gravestone Inscription as printed in 
The Coquette 44 



Portrait of the mother of Elizabeth 
Whitman, from the painting at the 
Hartford Athenaeum ... 76 

The Stage Route from Watertown to 
West Hartford, from Low's Alma- 
nack for 1788 92 

Conventional picture of the Bell 
Tavern, in Bickerstaff's American 
Almanack for 1779, printed at Dan- 
vers by E. Russell, "next the ^ Bell 
Tavern." That for 1778 was printed 
at the Tavern .... 104 

The Bell Tavern, Danvers . . 120 

"Eliza Wharton," engraved by James 
Eddy, for the eleventh edition of 
The Coquette 134 

Lady Agar-Ellis, engraved by S. W. 
Reynolds from the painting by John 
Jackson 136 

Gravestone of Elizabeth Whitman . 143 

Title-page of the First Edition of 
"The Coquette" . . . .148 



PREFACE. 

In this age of science the novel is 
the most popular form of literature. 
It is our troubadour, singing of the 
mystery and the passion of life, while 
the living hero is at the bottom of an 
ore shaft, and the heroine is studying 
the chemistry of food. We who 
believe that what is is best, would not 
have it otherwise. 

The following pages, however, tell 
of an era when there was less of 
variety in a girl's daily round, and 
few opportunities for the expression 
of her in3ividuality. These pages tell 
also of one who chafed under these 
conditions ; and the story of her suf- 

XI 



PREFACE 

f ering, whether we consider it to have 
been retributive or not, will always 
appeal to us. 

I have attempted to gather all that 
may now be had relating to Elizabeth 
Whitman. To Mrs. Elizabeth C. 
Osborn, who has placed at my service 
the treasures of the Peabody His- 
torical Society, I am under great 
obligation, not only for facts of value, 
but for counsel and encouragement; 
and to Mr. Lyman P. Osborn, Libra- 
rian of the Peabody Institute, Pea- 
body, I am indebted for aid. Mr. 
George Francis Dow of the Essex 
Institute, Miss Mary C. Crawford, 
the author. Rev. Edwin P. Parker of 
the Second church in Hartford, Mr. 
Albert Matthews, and Mr. M. A. 

XII 



PREFACE 

De Wolfe Howe have all added to my 
store of knowledge. 

The opportunity to print the inven- 
tory I owe to the generosity of Mr, 
Charles E. Goodspeed of Boston, who 
kept in mind a chance remark of 
mine, and gave me the precious bit of 
crumbling paper when it came into 
his hands. 

And finally I would not fail to 
record the life-long interest in 
Elizabeth felt by my mother, Mrs. 
Sarah K. Bolton, who often heard 
her history during a girlhood spent in 
Hartford. 

As I look back upon the pages of 
Elizabeth Whitman's life-story I feel, 
vaguely, that she needed not an 
advocate so much as a persistent 



PREFACE 

searcher for the truth. And we may 
hope that Time may bring a harvest 
of truth which no mere industry has 
been able to obtain. 

CK. B. 



A STRANGE LADY 

AT 

BELL TAVERN 



THE ELIZABETH WHITMAN 
MYSTERY 



I. A Strange Lady at the Bell 
Tavern. 

/^"Occasionally a domestic trag- 

^-^ edy, which appears at first to 

have no elements of general interest, 

gathers importance with increasing 

years and becomes part of the social 

history of the time. So it was with 

the life of Beatrice Cenci whose not 

altogether unlovely story has been 

told again by the sympathetic and 

masterly pen of Marion Crawford. 

A young woman's distress and 

lonely dying at a quiet Massachusetts 

town, far from her home, has become, 
9 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

through the pen of another novelist, 
an enduring part of the history of 
American fiction.^ Because the story 
was discussed at every fireside a cen- 
tury ago as a mystery and as a 
romance, its every detail and con- 
jecture now call for final record. 

On a day late in May or early in 
June in the year 1788, a lady of thirty- 
six, refined and accustomed to move 
in the highest social and intellectual 
life of New England, engaged a 
chaise and post-boy at a tavern in 
Watertown and set out for Danvers, 

1 More recently Miss Mary C. Crawford, while 
retelling the story in her delightful "Romance of 
Old New England Churches," suggests that Haw- 
thorne may have found his heroine for the Scar- 
let Letter in Elizabeth Whitman. This theory 
was first put forward by a young reporter in 
Salem, without evidence of fact to fortify him. 
Hawthorne's friends never heard of the sug- 
gested origin of the Scarlet Letter. 

10 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

near Salem. Her arrival at the Bell 
Tavern^ in Danvers caused no un- 
usual remark; the landlord, Captain 
Goodhue, gave her the south-east 
room, had her trunk carried up the 
stairs, and dismissed the post-boy. 
This was probably Captain William 
Goodhue who had recently retired 
from the management of the Sun 
Tavern in Salem.^ 

The lady explained that her hus- 
band, Thomas Walker,^ would arrive 

1 Washington Street, corner Main Street, near 
the Lexington monument in the present town of 
Peabody. 

2 Low's almanacs show that Goodhue kept the 
"Inn at Danvers" in 1788, 1789 and 1790. 

3 In the Salem Mercury for July 15, 1788, may 

be seen : "Died in Boston, Thomas Walker, 

Esq., late of Montreal." In the Massachusetts 
Centinel for July 12, 1788, we find that "On Tues- 
day last, died Thomas Walker, Esq., aged 70, late 
of Montreal." The inventory of this "virtuous 
and patriotic gentleman" may be seen in Suffolk 
Probate Records, vol. 87, p. 395 and the adminis- 
tration was allowed the widow, Martha Walker. 

11 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

in a few days from Westfield, Con- 
necticut. Thereafter she settled down 
to needlework, reading, and the writ- 
ing of letters and verses. Nor was 
she averse to singing for she had a 
good voice. ^ She rarely left her room 
until twilight fell upon the town, and 
then only for a walk along the coun- 
try road. A lady who saw her often 
in these days described her as hand- 
some, with a sad face, and ever busy 
with her pen.^ 

The Bell Tavern faced the road 
now called Washington Street, with 
its northerly end toward the present 

1 Nathaniel Annable, the blacksmith, heard this 
from aged people. He spoke of it to Mrs. Sarah 
K. Bolton when she visited the grave March 31, 
1895. 

2 Fowler papers in the Essex Institute, vol. 16, 
p. 150. 

12 



'mm, 

mm. 
mm 

wm 




WALL PAPER, FROM 

MISS whitman's 

ROOM IN THE 
BELL TAVERN. 



^<-^^ 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Main Street. The south-east room 
was at the corner away from the 
roads. Its walls were covered with 
paper of a whitish color, crossed by 
perpendicular green stripes which 
-were ornamented with conventional 
dark red and white flowers. The 
stripes were not straight bands but 
the green expandeH and contracted, 
giving to each strip somewhat the 
effect of a chain of long, large willow 
leaves.^ 

"The Bell," as it was called, was 
more renowned than the quiet of 
Danvers would imply. Here Mr. 
Russell issued his Boston Almanack 
in 1777, and from 1778 to 1781 he 

1 The Peabody Historical Society has a piece of 
this paper, vouched for and given by Mrs. Isaac 
Drowne. 

13 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

had his printing office near the 
Tavern. Wherever the almanac went 
the purchaser saw a picture of the 
Bell Tavern. 

As the days wore on into July and 
no husband appeared the village 
dames began to gossip over their tea 
cups about the strange lady at "The 
Bell." She was evidently a woman of 
social position and she was surely dis- 
tressed that the man whom she ex- 
pected did not arrive; this much they 
knew. 

Meanwhile, Elizabeth was ever 

busy with her pen. What she felt at 

this time we know from the following 

letter, written by her in her hours of 

trial, alone at Danvers. It was in 

stenographic characters and was fol- 
14 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

lowed by a pastoral poem bearing the 
title, "Disappointment." The letter 
reads :^ 

"Must I die alone? Shall I never 
see you more? I know that you will 
come, but you will come too late: 
This is, I fear, my last ability. Tears 
fall so, I know not how to write. — 
Why did you leave me in so much dis- 
tress? But I will not reproach you: 
All that was dear I left for you : but 
do not regret it. — May God forgive in 
both what was amiss: — When I go 
from hence, I will leave you some way 
to find me; — if I die, will you come 
and drop a tear over my grave?" 

The following poem was found 
with the letter : 

1 It bore this title in the newspaper : "A letter 
in characters decyphered." 

15 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 
Disappointment 

With fond impatience all the tedious 

day 
I sigh'd, and wish'd the lingering 

hours away; 
For when bright Hesper led the 

starry train, 
My Shepherd swore to meet me on the 

plain ; 
With eager haste to that dear spot I 

flew, 
And linger'd long, and then with^ 

tears withdrew: 
Alone, abandoned to love's tenderest 

woes. 
Down my pale cheeks the tide of sor- 
row flows ; 

i"The" in the Centinel. 

16 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Dead to all joys that fortune can 

bestow, 
In vain for me her useless^ bounties 

flow; 
Take back each envied gift ye pow'r^ 

divine, 
And only let me call Fidelio mine. 

Ah, wretch! what anguish yet thy 
soul must prove. 

Ere thou canst hope to lose thy care in 
love ; 

And when Fidelio meets thy f earf uP 
eye, • 

Pale fear and col3 despair his pres- 
ence fly ; 

With pensive steps, I sought thy 
walks again, 

1 First printed "future." 

2 Mrs. Morton gives "pow'rs." 

3 Mrs. Morton gives "tearful." 

17 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

And kiss'd thy token/ on the verdant 
plain; 

With fondest hope, thro' many a 
bHssful hour, 

We gave the souls to fancy's pleas- 
ing pow'r; 

Lost in the magick of that sweet em- 
ploy, 

To build gay scenes, and fashion 
future joy. 

We saw mild peace o'er fair Canaan 
rise. 

And shower^ her pleasing from benig- 
nant skies ; 

On airy hills our happy mansion rose, 

Built but for joy, no room for future 
woes; 

1 First printed "kiss'd thee, smiling." 

2 First printed "show." 

18 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Round the calm solitude, with cease- 
less song 

Sweet as the sleep of innocence, the 

day, 
By transports measured, lightly danc'd 

away; 
To love, to bliss, the union'd soul was 

given, 
And each^too happy, ask'd no brighter 

heaven. 
And must the hours in ceaseless 

anguish roll ? 
Will no soft sunshine cheer my 

clouded soul? 
Can this dear earth no transient joy 

supply? 

1 First printed, ''But, ah !" 

19 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Is it my doom to hope, despair and 
die? 

Oh! come, once more, with soft en- 
dearments come, 

Burst the cold prison of the sullen 
tomb ; 

Thro' favour'd walks, thy chosen 
Maid attend. 

Where well-known shades their pleas- 
ing branches bend ; 

Shed the soft poison from thy speak- 
ing eye. 

And look those raptures lifeless 
words deny; 

Still be, tho' late, re-hear3 what ne'er 
could tire, 

But, told each eve, fresh pleasures 

would inspire ; 

Still hope those scenes which love and 
20 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

fancy drew ; 
But, drawn a thousand times, were 
ever new. 

Can fancy paint, can words ex- 
press; 
Can aught on earth my woes re- 
dress ; 
E'en thy soft smiles can ceaseless 

prove 
Thy truth, thy tenderness and love : 
Once thou could every bliss inspire, 
Transporting joy, and gay desire; 
Now cold Despair her banner rears, 
And pleasure flies when she ap- 
pears ; 
Fond hope within my bosom dies. 
And agony her place supplies : 

O, thou ! for whose dear sake I bear, 
21 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

A doom so dreadful, so severe, 
May happy fates thy footsteps 

guide, 
And o'er thy peace fulhome preside ; 

Nor let E a's early tomb 

Infect thee, with its baleful gloom/ 

These lines may be interpreted in 
several ways. A woman, whose in- 
stinct is strong in such a case, will 
ask: Is it not a cry of expiation, 
wrung from a soul that has learned 
through generations of Calvinism to 
expect punishment for sin? Others 
will read in the lines despair but 
nothing more. There is no want of 
faith in him, even though he may 
come too late, but an utter helpless- 

1 Massachusetts Centinel, SeptemHer 20, 1788. 
Corrected in the issue for September 24, 1788. 

22 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

ness since he is helpless to aid her ex- 
cept through the comfort of his pres- 
ence. Even this she cannot have. 
She is strong in her devotion to him ; 
there is no censure for him and very 
little for herself. Having taken the 
fateful step, whether sinful or merely 
injudicious through its secrecy, she 
involuntarily cries out in her despair. 
But it is not the despair of a weak 
woman nor of one necessarily crushed 
by sin. In her loneliness she turned 
to her pen as one might seek a com- 
forter. 

Tradition says that she was seen 
one day to write upon the flagging 
before the door with a piece of chalk. . 
Later in the afternoon a neighbor's 

lad named Symonds, while sitting idly 
23 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

upon the door step, saw the marks 
and amused himself by erasing them/ 
As the sun set a commanding figure in 
American uniform came up the vil- 
lage street on horseback, alighted, and 
studied carefully the flagging, lintels, 
and threshold of the tavern door, then 
turned slowly away, wrapping his 
coat about his face, and mounted his 
horse.^ 



1 Mrs. Dall states this on the authority of two 
persons, Elizabeth's nephew, and the Rev. Joseph 
Howe's grand niece. — Springfield Republican. 

2 The version by "Curiosos ' in the Centinel of 
September 20th, reads: "She wrote E. Walker 
on the door of the house, and when a gentleman 
who happened to come along the road stopped 
and read the name and went away, she said she 
was undone." This version leads one to ask why 
Elizabeth's lover should "happen to come along" 
a road in the village of Danvers. If he came to 
Danvers to find her and saw her name on the 
door why did he go away without communicating 
with her? If he did not wish to communicate 
with her why did he visit the town? Evidently 
he came, expecting to find the inscription, failed 
to find it and went away. 

24 




STAND USED BY MISS WHITMAN. 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

He had come and gone, and the 
lady in the south-east room from that 
hour gave herself up to despair/ 

In the anxiety of these days her pen 
expressed her emotions in verse as 
faithfully as it had done under hap- 
pier skies : 

*'And must the hours in ceaseless 

anguish roll ? 
Will not soft sunshine cheer my 

clouded soul ? 
Can this dear earth no transient joy 

supply? 
Is it my doom to hope, despair, and 

dier 

Her plight awakened sympathy 

1 Mrs. Ball's Romance of the Association, p. 37. 
She says that Elizabeth never knew of his visit. 
Would the gossips of a country tavern have left 
her in ignorance? 

25 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

among the few who were admitted in 
some slight measure to her confidence. 
Opposite the Tavern on Main Street, 
in a fine old gambrel-roofed house, 
lived a wealthy tanner named Joseph 
Southwick. He and his wife Bethiah 
were Quakers, some indication per- 
haps of their benevolent spirit. Mrs. 
Southwick was a frequent if not daily 
visitor now at the Tavern. She 
and "Mrs. Walker," or "Elizabeth 
Walker" as she was called, sat to- 
gether over their sewing, and Mrs. 
Southwick has said that in these days 
Elizabeth never spoke a word of com- 
plaint or accusation. In conversation 
her face brightened as it must have 
done at home.^ 

1 Mrs. Lccke's preface to "The Coquette," 1855, 
p. 21. 

26 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

The Southwicks had the easiest and 
most comfortable chaise in Danvers. 
Friend Southwick also had a large 
heart. He often sent his youngest 
apprentice, Isaac Frye, a boyish, in- 
nocent-spoken lad, with the horse and 
chaise to carry Elizabeth out in the 
twilight. These drives made a deep 
impression upon the boy, and years 
after the time of these experiences he 
spoke feelingly to his wife of Eliza- 
beth's tragedy.^ 

As the hour for her confinement 
drew near she is said to have been in- 
vited to move to a private house that 
she might have loving care and the 
surroundings of a home.^ The Salem 

1 Letter from my friends Miss Mary P. and 
Miss Serena Frye, granddaughters of Isaac Frye. 

2 Hanson's "Danvers." 

27 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Mercury, however, distinctly states 
that she remained at the tavern/ 

About the tenth of July Elizabeth 
gave birth to a dead child, dead no 
doubt from the terrible heartache and 
anxiety experienced by the mother. 
Elizabeth was not too ill to know of 
the fate of her little one, but it may be 



^ Mrs. Dall writes in the Romance, page 109, 
that in 1875 at Andover she saw a book-rack in 
the home of "Dr." Putnam, inherited by him from 
his grandfather, "Dr. James Putnam of Danvers," 
and that it had been used by Elizabeth Whitman. 
This would not be proof that Elizabeth had lived 
with the Putnams, for they might easily have ob- 
tained the book-rack from the Bell Tavern. There 
is difficulty in the identification of these physi- 
cians. Mrs. Osborn of Peabody, tells me that old 
Dr. Amos Putnam had a son, James Phillips Put- 
nam, who acquired some medical lore. James's 
grandson, Alfred, was a baker in Andover, and 
Alfred may have met Mrs. Dall. Alfred Putr 
nam's great grandson, Carl Rust Parker of 
Auburndale, now owns the book-rack mentioned 
by Mrs. Dall. He has presented the accompany- 
ing photograph, A gentleman of some promin- 
ence in Andover, Mr. John Pickering Putnam, 
was a grandson of Deacon Gideon Putnam (1726- 
1811), the village store-keeper in Danvers. Did 
Mrs. Dall meet Gideon's grandson? 

28 




STAND USED BY MISS WHITMAN. 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

that she, remembering her condition, 
could say with resignation, "Thy will 
be done." She grew alarmed, how- 
ever, as puerperal fever began to sap 
her waning strength. Calling Mrs. 
Very, a neighbor, to her bedside, she 
asked for a warming pan of glowing 
coals. When the coals had been 
brought and were held near her, 
Elizabeth with her own hand laid 
upon them the letters which, for good 
or ill, held the secret of her life.^ If 
her lover were her husbanfl she there- 
by freed him from every obligation 
which the child, if it had lived, might 
have forced her for its sake to claim 



1 Miss Helen Philbrick to Mrs. Lyman P. Os- 
born. Her uncle, Samuel Philbrick, of Brookline, 
married Eliza Southwick, a granddaughter of 
Joseph and Bethiah Southwick. 



29 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

from him. That last act of devotion 
in her hours of fever and in the pres- 
ence of death was very different from 
the loathing which turns an injured 
woman from the man who has won 
and deserted her. 

She lingered for a fortnight, and 
died on Friday, the 25th day of July, 
1788. The man whom she loved she 
did not see. 

"You loiter'd on the road too long, 

You trifled at the gate : 
The enchanted dove upon her branch 

Died without a mate ; 
The enchanted princess in her tower 

Slept, died, behind the grate ; 

Her heart was starving all this while 

You made it wait." 
30 




THE OLD MAIN STREET BURIAL GROUND, 
ELIZABETH WHITMAN IS BURIED. 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN- MYSTERY 

"Is she fair now as she lies ? 

Once she was fair ; 
Meet queen for any kingly king, 

With gold-dust on her hair. 

Now there are poppies in her locks, 
White poppies she must wear ; 

Must wear a veil to shroud her face 
And the want graven there: 

Or is the hunger fed at length. 
Cast off the care?" 

Sunday was a beautiful, peaceful 

day. It was then that they laid her 

beside her baby in the old South Dan- 

vers burying ground, now a part of 

Peabody. The newspaper says that 

she was "decently interred," and 

Hanson states that the entire village 

and many from neighboring towns 
31 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

attended these final rites over the 
strange lady of the Tavern. She was 
at last beyond the sorrows of the 
world, asleep with her baby by her 
side, and her secret within her silent 
heart. The next day Sylvester Proc- 
tor, a good citizen of the town, refer- 
red in his diary to "a strange woman 
that was brought to the Bell Tavern 
to lay in — a person not known, age3 
about 35 years who died in about a 
week after she was brought to bed."^ 
There is no mention of her death 
upon the records of Danvers, other 
than this quotation from his diary. 

1 Mr. Proctor, who was Born October 26, 1738, 
and died March 21, 1790, lies near Elizabeth in 
the "Old Burying Ground." 



32 



THE LAST RITES. 



II. The Last Rites. 

/^"^URiosiTY^, not improperly, be- 
^■*^ came intense in the little town, 
and the lady whose lover never came 
to her excited pity, and also the 
respect due a superior woman in mis- 
fortune. The following notice ap- 
peared in The Salem Mercury for 
July 29, 1788, written probably by or 
at the request of Captain Goodhue : 

"Last Friday, a female stranger 
died at the Bell Tavern, in Danvers; 
and on Sunday her remains were de- 
cently interred. The circumstances 
relative to this woman are such as 
excite curiosity, and interest our feel- 
ings. She was brought to the Bell in 
33 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

a chaise, from Watertown, as she 
said, by a young man whom she had 
engaged for that purpose. After she 
had alighted, and taken a trunk with 
her into the house, the chaise im- 
mediately drove off. She remained 
at this inn till her death, in expecta- 
tion of the arrival of her husband, 
whom she expected to come for her, 
and appeared anxious at his delay. 
She was averse to being interrogated 
concerning herself or connexions; 
and kept much retired to her chamber, 
employes in needle-work, writing, 
etc. She said, however, that she came 
from Westfield, in Connecticut; that 
her parents lived in that State; that 
she had been married only a few 

months; and that her husband's 
34 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

name was Thomas Walker; — but 
always carefully concealed her family 
name. Her linen was all marked 
E. W. About a fortnight before her 
death, she was brought to bed of a 
lifeless child. When those who at- 
tended her apprehended her fate, 
they asked her, whether she did not 
wish to see her friends : She 
answered, that she was very desirous 
of seeing them. It was proposed that 
she should send for them; to which 
she objected, hoping in a short time to 
be able to go to them. From what 
she said, and from other circum- 
stances, it appeared probable to those 
who attended her, that she belongeifl 
to some country town in Connecticut : 

Her conversation, her writings and 
35 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

her manners, bespoke the advantage 
of a respectable family and good 
education. Her person was agree- 
able; her deportment, amiable and 
engaging; and, though in a state of 
anxiety and suspense, she preserved 
a cheerfulness which seemed to be 
not the effect of insensibility, but of 
a firm and patient temper. She was 
supposed to be about 35 years old. 
Copies of letters, of her writing^^ 
dated at Hartford, Springfield, and 
other places, were left among her 
things. This account is given by the 
family in which she resided ; and it is 
hoped the publication of it will be a 
means of ascertaining her friends of 
her fate." 

The notice which appeared in The 
36 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Salem Mercury was reprinted in the 
Massachusetts Centinel and was 
copied widely. It soon reached the 
eyes of Mrs. Henry Hill^ of Boston 
who had awaited since May the ar- 
rival of Miss Elizabeth Whitman of 
Hartford. An inspection of the per- 
sonal trifles left at Captain Goodhue's 
proved that the visitor who never 
reached Boston was indeed Elizabeth. 
An inventory of these has been 
preserved, and the record on a faded 
sheet of paper, never yet put in print, 
bears the inscription: "Invoice of 
articles left by Mrs. Elizabeth Whit- 



1 Anna Barrett married July 8, 1762, Henry 
Hill, a prominent Boston merchant who had 
graduated at the Public Latin School in 1746 and 
at Harvard in 1756. He died in 1828. She died 
of old age December 16, 1822, actat 83. They left 
no children. 

^7 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

man at her deceas at Capt. Good- 
hew's." ^ 

It is distinctly a feminine ward- 
robe; th^re are no evidences of liter- 
ary taste except an "ink case with 
sealing wax and wafers," and "ten 
sheets of paper." Her private writ- 
ings may have been remove3 by her 
friends by common consent. In the 
inventory such words as "pinch 
back," "musslen Tuckers," "figured 
lutstring," "fustin pokets," "calash," 
"camblet riding hood" and "calimico 
shoes," carry us back to the home life 
of a century ago. Two significant 
items there are, "silver tea spoons 
marked E. W.," and at the very end 

1 Given to the author by Mr. Charles E. Good- 
speed. 

38 



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- ♦^*< . ^ 







THE INVENTORY. 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

"Sundry babe cloths." This inven- 
tory reveals the most intimate knowl- 
edge that we now have of those days 
of anguish endured by a lady whose 
sorrow was to be borne alone and 
among strangers. 

The inventory reads: 

2 ginneys, 1 crown, 2-4 pistoreens dollars. 

6 silver teaspoons, Marked E. W. 

1 pinch back ring set with a Stone, 1 gold 
twisted ring. 

1 quilt working pocket book, 1 small 
chiney green Box. 

1 silver probe, & 1 pr. Silver Fosseps, 1 
pr. Sizers, 1 doble Bladed Knife. 

4 Musslen Tuckers, 1 black lace, 2 rib- 
bens. 

1 pr. Muslen ruffles, 2 Lawn and 1 
Muzlen apron. 

1 Black Mode apron, 1 gause apron, 2 
39 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

gause Handkerchiefs. 

2 Lace Handkerchiefes, I black Silk do, 
1 Shaul cotten. 

1 Mizlen cloke, 1 remnant of gauze, 2 
gilt Fanns. 

2 ribbons, 3 pr. cloath & 1 pr. Leather 
gloves. 

1 figured Lutstring gound, 1 lite patch — 
found in ye trunks with other triffling small 
things. 

3 cloath capps, 2 calico gounds & 1 skirt 
ditto. 

2 pr. fustin Pokets, 4 pr. cotten & 1 pr. 
thread Hose. 

4 Linen Shifts, 1 Mercilions quilt. 

1 pr. Russels Shoes, 1 cotten shaul found 
wrapted in Draper cloth. 

1 calash, 1 black Bonet, 1 black Satten 
cloke. 

1 camblet Riding hood, 1 pr. Stays, 1 pr. 

old leather and 1 pr. of old calimico Shoes, 
40 







^^^^ 




BACK PAGE OF THE INVENTORY. 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

1 Japand Qt Kenister of green Tea. 

1 Ink case with Sealing wax, wafers, etc. 

1 work bag and kniting worker, etc. 

1 pr. white Mettle Shoe Buckles. 

1 old Silk Handkerchief, including Sun- 
dry Babe cloths. 

1 Box with Sundry pieces of Ribbons, 
Small Looking glass, a gauze capp, etc., 
Ten sheets of paper. 

One item in this inventory is of es- 
pecial interest to us, for one of the 
"six silver teaspoons marked E. W./' 
may still be traced. 

When the old Bell Tavern was 
torn down, a sketch relating its his- 
tory was written by Mr. Fitch Poole, 
and published in the Salem Gazette 
for February i8, 1840. Here we read 

"that in removing one of the chim- 
41 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

neys of the old house, in a small 
recess connected with the closet of 
her chamber several articles have 
been recovered v/hich have some in- 
terest .... Perhaps some of the letters 
may possess sufficient interest for 
publication, and it is presumed in the 
meantime that there can be no objec- 
tion to having the originals examined 
by any who choose to do so, as well 
as the other articles by applying at 
the store of Mr. Amos Trask, near 
the monument." 

Among these relics was a small 
silver teaspoon with the initials E. W. 
This teaspoon, Mr. Amos Trask gave 
to his little daughter who has careful- 
ly preserved it (Mrs. Emma [Trask] 

Wood, of East Boston.) Mr. Trask 
42 




SILVER SPOON MARKED E. W. 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

was a great collector of antiquarian 

relics, and his books and papers sold 

after his death to Boston dealers may 

have included articles and papers of 

Elizabeth Whitman which may yet be 

found. On the back of the spoon may 

be seen the mark of the silversmith, 

I w. c. I the dots being perpendicular 

scratches and the letters touched by 

the enclosing line. 

A stone was soon erected over the 

grave. Mrs. Foster, author of "The 

Coquette, or The History of Eliza 

Wharton" (i. e.EHzabeth Whitman), 

who wrote less than ten years after 

her death, certainly must have known 

the circumstances connected with the 

erection of this memorial. She says 

in letter LXXIV of the novel : "Mrs. 
43 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Sumner [Mrs. Henry Hill] gave or- 
ders for a decent stone to be erected 
over her grave, with the following in- 
scription:'* 

Before reprinting the inscription it 
should be said that Mrs. Dall believes 
the slab of red sandstone to have been 
cut at or near Hartford and placed in 
Danvers by a Connecticut stone- 
mason, the Whitman family bearing 
the expense. Also she suggests Joel 
Barlow, the poet, as the author of the 
inscription. The lines, if they do not 
actually condemn Elizabeth, show a 
lack of faith in her innocence among 
her closest and best friends — nay, 
more, a willingness to record it 
publicly for all time. I do not believe 

that Elizabeth's family had anything 
44 




^' THIS HUMBLE STONE, 

IN MEMORY OF 

ELIZA WHARTON, 

rS I ^■S CRIB ED BY MER WE, E P i ^^G^JAl^ E^^ - — ' 

sTTT ?? 7' ' r/ .V C b MM ^■ 



'£P WHOMSJIJ. EU'ir^ 
^^^^^^''''''^^TEyDEtiNESS AND AFFECTION-, 
'^ ' EMDOIVED Ivm'U SUPERIOR ACq_UIRE ME^^TS , 
\sH^.WAS STILL MORE DISTINGUISHED BY HUMIL- 
I ITY AND BENEVOLENCE, 

U.ET CANDOR THROW AVtlL OVER HER TRMLTIES, 
I FOR GREAT WAS HER CHARITY TO OTHERS, ' 
I SHE' SUS TA 1 NE D , THE LAST 

PAJNFUiySCENEi. FAR FROm EVERY FRIEND- ; . 

AND EXHIBITED AN EXAMPLE 

^F CALM RESI.GNATION* 

MER DEPARTURE WAS O.V THE Zr^tk DAY OF 

JULY, A* D. r— — , 

IN THE ^Jih YEAR UF HER AGE^ 

AND THE TfiARS OF STRANGERS Vv ATE RED HER 

GRAY E.** 



GRAVE-STONE INSCRIPTION AS PRINTED IN THE COUUETTE, 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

to do with the stone. If they were 
plunged in shame and sorrow a very 
short inscription would have answer- 
ed every nee3. It seems more natural 
to believe that Mrs. Hill and Mrs. 
Foster, the friend and the relative, 
came together and devised the me- 
morial. What would be more natural 
than that Mrs. Foster should write 
the lines which appear upon the stone, 
and reappear in the novel ? Mrs. Fos- 
ter's opinion of Elizabeth as ex- 
pressed in the novel coincides with 
that upon the stone, and she plainly 
states that Mrs. Hill ordered the 
stone to be placed over Elizabeth's 
grave. 

Mrs. Dall, however, says: "The 

appeal upon Elizabeth's gravestone to 
45 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

the charity of those who read it was 
natural to Joel Barlow, whose secret 
marriage to Ruth Baldwin, Elizabeth 
had disapproved and forgiven." This 
view may be reasonable, if the word 
"frailties" be taken to mean a secret 
marriage, but the case for Mrs. Fos- 
ter, especially when we consider her 
style of literary composition, seems to 
me too strong to be gainsaid. The 
inscription as copied by the late 
Henry M. Brooks of Salem, before 
relic-hunters had chipped it almost 
entirely away, reads: "This humble 
stone in memory of Elizabeth Whit- 
man is inscribed by her weeping 
friends, to whom she endeared her- 
self by uncommon tenderness and 

affection. Endowed with superior 
46 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

genius and accomplishments she was 
still more endeared^ by humility and 
benevolence. Let candour throw a 
veil over her frailties, for great was 
her charity to others. She sustained 
the last painful scene far from every 
friend, and exhibited an example of 
calm resignation. Her departure was 
on the 25th day of July, A. D. 1788, in 
the 37th year of her age ; and the tears 
of strangers watered her grave." In 
April, 1885, Mr. Brooks found on the 
line next to the last only "A. D. 1788," 
and then the last pathetic and dra- 
matic words, ''the tears of strangers 
watered her grave." 

In "The Coquette" the grouping of 
lines is not a guide to the original 

1 The novel has "Distinguished." 

47 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

form of the inscription because the 
length of printed line is governed by 
the breadth of the type page. But the 
original must have been of the form 
given below, if we may reconstruct 
the inscription from the few words 
and letters which remained when Mr. 
Frank Cousins photographed the 
stone in the year 1891. 



48 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 



in 


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weeping friends t 

common tenderne: 

rior acquirements 

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veil over her f rai 

charity to others. 

cene, far from ev 

calm resignation. 

s on the 25th day 

the 37th year of 

strangers watered 


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Ities, 
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23 


olence. 

sustain! 
end 

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affectio 

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3 H 

3 -. 



49 



THE AUTHOR OF "THE 
COQUETTE." 



III. The Author of the Coquette. 

TV Trs. Hannah Foster was then 
-*^^-*- at the age of about thirty, the 
daughter of Grant Webster, a Boston 
merchant. Her husband, the Rev. John 
Foster of Brighton, was a cousin of 
the wife of Deacon John Whitman 
of Stow, who was in turn a cousin 
german of EHzabeth's father.^ She 
was in spirit one with the brilliant 
circle which was making Hartford a 
centre of the revival of culture in 
New England — a renaissance Fer- 
rara in its humble way Eager to 
write and to encourage others, she 

1 Mrs. Locke in her preface gives the connec- 
tion incorrectly. 

51 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

soon won results which must have far 
exceeded her dreams. Her enthusi- 
asm awakened the slumbering ambi- 
tion of a farmer's lad, Phineas 
Adams, who founded the Anthology 
Review in Boston, and helped to 
usher in a golden age of literature in 
America. Mrs. Foster also wrote a 
novel which was destined to find its 
way into many pious homes, to lie 
beside the family Bible, and to point 
the narrow way that leads to salva- 
tion. Her prudery distresses a mod- 
ern reader, but possibly her respected 
husband's sermons would also dis- 
tress a present-day congregation. 
We must not judge her too severely 
after more than a century. 

For the theme of her novel she took 
52 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

the life of Elizabeth Whitman, and 
imitating more or less consciously the 
Clarissa Harlowe of still greater 
fame, she told her story in a series of 
letters. Elizabeth Whitman's career 
is only in part the inspiration of her 
heroine's career, but Mrs. Foster has 
fashioned Elizabeth for all time in 
the form of her heroine, Eliza Whar- 
ton, and it seems almost a hopeless 
task to correct the portrait.^ 

Mrs. Foster probably owed less to 

1 Mr. George E. Hoadley gives the following 
extract from an aunt's letter written many years 
ago: 

"Quite near the old church was a house known 
as the old Whitman house, which was burned 
down in my girl days. Billy Whitman lived 
there; he had a sister, the heroine of a novel 
written in days long before, called Eliza Wharton. 

"The heroes, two of them, lived in Hartford; 
one was Daniel Wadsworth, then a young man 
and the other Nat Terry, also a young man. Of 
course their real names were not called. And 
another was a professor at Yale. In the book 
he was called Lamb. He admired her much and 

53 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Clarissa Harlowe than to a much 
more recent novel, The Power of 
Sympathy, written by Mrs. Perez 
Morton, and published in Boston in 
1789. Another model for her facile 
pen was Charlotte Temple which 
Mrs. Rowson, a popular school mis- 
tress, had issued in 1790. The cir- 
cumstances and associations of each 
must have made a deep impression 
upon Mrs. Foster's mind. Charlotte's 
real name was Stanley and Elizabeth 



gave her a ring which I with a number of others, 
with consent of Mrs. Whitman, all tried on. 
The room of the heroine was kept locked and 
nothing disturbed till the house was burned, and 
all was lost." 

This version, evidently written in old age when 
accurate detail had faded from memory, has 
nevertheless something of "local color." Daniel 
Wadsworth, later the founder of the Wadsworth 
Athenseum, was the son of Colonel Jeremiah, 
Elizabeth's contemporary and friend. Daniel's 
sister Catherine married Nathaniel Terry, men- 
tioned above, and later a member of Congress. 
Lamb was Buckminster. 

54 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Whitman's mother was a Stanley, 
although not of the same stock. 
Charlotte's lover, Colonel John Mon- 
tresor, was a kinsman of Mrs. Row- 
son,^ so that the story of poor Char- 
lotte was family gossip. 

In Mrs. Morton's novel the 
"heroine" was her own sister, Fanny 
Apthorp, and the lover was reputed to 
be the author's own husband, a sus- 
picion that persisted in the popular 
mind, although the Centinel of Octo- 
ber 8, 1788 (the very year of Eliza- 
beth's death), printed a carefully 
worded paragraph to show that John 
Adams and James Bowcioin did not 
hold Mr. Morton to be proven guilty. 



1 Mrs. Rowson's brother John bore Montresor 
for his middle name. 

55 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

These books were in the epistolary 
form and each ended very properly 
with a "monumental inscription." 
Elizabeth's case was so similar to 
those of Miss Stanley and Miss 
Apthorp in the eyes of Mrs. Foster, 
the kinswoman with literary am- 
bitions, that she found her task an 
easy one. 

Elizabeth Whitman was thus in- 
evitably associated in Mrs. Foster's 
mind and so in the minds of her read- 
ers with two young women of good 
family who came to a tragic end. It 
is said that Beatrice Cenci would not 
have suffered death had it not been 
her misfortune to be convicted at a 
time when the Roman prison held 

other noble scions who had murdered 
56 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

their sires. Beatrice died as a warn- 
ing to others; and Elizabeth Whit- 
man who expired protesting her in- 
nocence, and wearing her marriage 
ring, has been held up as a warning to 
young girls, associated with Miss 
Stanley whose open shame and pitiful 
life were known to all New York, and 
with Miss Apthorp who made confes- 
sion in suicide/ 

Miss Whitman was condemned at 
the outset, but it is difficult to deter- 
mine how widespread the belief in 
her guilt may have been. In Danvers 

1 The Massachusetts Spy, September 25, 1788, 
prints the poem "Disappointment" in its incorrect 
form, copied from the Herald of Freedom of the 
i8th, and in an editorial note states that it was 
not written by Miss Frances Theodora Apthorp, 
sister of Mrs. Perez Morton, but "it is now known 
to be the production of the late unfortunate Misi 
Whitman, who lately died at the Bell Tavern in 
Danvers." 

57 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

many thought her innocent, and these 
have handed down their faith to their 
children's children. But the writer 
who signed her (?) self "Curiosos," 
and sent to the Centinel the poem 
"Disappointment" as well as the later 
corrections spoke in no uncertain 
language : 

"While the fate of this unfortunate 
fair one, furnishes a good lesson 
against coquetry, etc., the following 
lines will add another proof in favour 
of the observation that there is some- 
thing in the composition of females 
which renders them incapable of 
hatred even to the perfidious liber- 
tine, who has been the cause of their 

ruin. 

58 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

"Oh thou, for whose dear sake I bear, 
"A doom so dreadful — so severe — 
"May happy fates thy footsteps guide, 
"And o'er thy peaceful home preside." 

We have still further evidence of 
Elizabeth's reputation, and this time 
with no name by which the author 
may be identified. 

The Independent Chronicle, Bos- 
ton, September ii, 1788, quotes an 
"extract of a letter from Boston'' 
which probably first appeared in a 
New York paper. The writer thinks 
the fate of Miss Whitman "a good 
moral lecture to young ladies," and 
continues : "She refused two as good 
offers of marriage as she Heserved, 
because she aspired higher than to be 

a clergyman's wife; and having 
59 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

coquetted till past her prime, fell, into 
criminal indulgences, proved preg- 
nant and then eloped — pretending 
(where she lodged and died) to be 
married, and carried on the deception 
till her death." One may note in 
passing that Elizabeth was engaged 
to marry the first clergyman, men- 
tioned above, when he died. The 
second clergyman broke his engage- 
ment in a fit of anger. She did not 
refuse either clergyman. 

Now, when v/e have surveyed the 
field we find that pretty much all the 
knowledge which we have of Eliza- 
beth Whitman comes from seven 
sources. 

I. The article in the Salem Mer- 
cury, respectful and non-committal, 
60 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

written by the landlord of the tavern 
or at his request. 

2. The notice in the Massachusetts 
Centinel of September 20th, which 
precedes the poem "Disappointment," 
and tells how her character was in- 
jured by romances/ This is the basis 
of Hanson's account in his History of 
Danvers. It is signed by "Curiosos," 
who claims to have had the poem 
^^some weeks." The editor of the 
Massachusetts Spy evidently thought 
the poem to be genuine. 

3. The corrections in the Centinel. 
These were made by "Curiosos." 

4. The extract from a letter from 

1 "She was a great reader of romances, and 
having formed her notions of happiness from that 
corrupt source, became vain and coquettish, and 
rejected some very advantageous offers of mar- 
riage in hope of realizing something more splen- 
did." 

61 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Boston, which lays stress upon Eliza- 
beth's ambition to be more than a 
clergyman's wife. 

5. The inscription on the grave- 
stone, which condemns her rather 
gently. 

6. The Coquette, by Mrs. Foster. 

7. A note by Mrs. Morton in her 
Power of Sympathy. 

The landlord's colorless statement 
we may dismiss from our considera- 
tion ; and we have left six unfriendly 
statements. The second and third 
refer to Elizabeth's private papers, 
and so probably came from Mrs. Fos- 
ter or Mrs. Hill, who could claim 
some right to use them. Mrs. Foster, 
as a literary woman, is the more prob- 
able author. Again, the fourth, with 
62 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

its reference to the social station of a 
clergyman's wife suggests Mrs. Fos- 
ter, who occupied a position which 
Elizabeth was said to consider of 
slight importance. The fifth, being 
the inscription on the grave-stone, I 
have already ascribed to Mrs. Foster, 
who used it in her novel. The sixth 
is The Coquette, Mrs. Foster's novel. 
The seventh, a note by Mrs. Morton, 
is very evidently based upon two and 
four, newspaper notices. 

In the second reference we have the 
word ''coquettish," in the fourth 
"coquetted," and in the sixth the con- 
summation of the idea or theory 
which was developing in Mrs. Fos- 
ter's brain, The Coquette. Is not this 

a natural and logical sequence? 
63 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

To sum up: if the above surmises 
are correct every contemporary word 
in print bearing adversely upon the 
character of Elizabeth Whitman, has 
had its source in the condemning pen 
of Mrs. Foster. And who was this 
Mrs. Foster? A distant connection 
by marriage who may never have 
seen Elizabeth nor visited in Hart- 
ford. She had that sixth sense for 
the picturesque which is no nearer 
than a second cousin to the truth. 

But after all that can be said has 
been said a relentless world places the 
burden of proof of innocence upon the 
accused rather than upon the ac- 
cuser ; and time has shown that there 
is little hope of lifting this burden. 

No record of marriage, whether valid 
64 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

or a fiction, whether in 1787 or as late 
as 1788, has yet come to light. Our 
only evidence that can be brought for- 
ward in her favor must be her poems, 
her letters, her friendships. These 
we are accustomed to consider of 
little value in a court of law. But in 
the story of a great man's life they 
transcend all other biographical mater- 
ial. Can these evidences be ignored? 
Are they nothing against the reiter- 
ated views of one woman in New 
England literature? A woman who 
perhaps never had the finer spirit and 
the rich intellectual associations that 
fell to Elizabeth Whitman in the days 
of the "Hartford Wits." 

Mrs. Caroline H. Dall in her 

Romance of the Association treats of 
65 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

the injustice which an historical novel 
Hke The Coquette, may perpetuate. 
She says : 

"Eliza is represented as a provin- 
cial belle, weary of the restraints of 
poverty and a parsonage, and am- 
bitious of a sphere she cannot fitly 
fill. 

"After Mr. Howe's death, w^hich is 
made to follow her father's, although 
it really preceded it, she is sent to 
New Haven in search of gayety and 
diversion. 

"Here she is thrown into military 
society, and made to meet Edwards^ as 
if for the first time. In reality, she 
passed her time when at New Haven 
in the family of the president of Yale 

1 Pierrepont Edwards. 

66 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

College, and EdwarHs was her cousin, 
whom she had known as a married 
man ever since he was nineteen, — 
some eighteen years. 

*'Her inquiries into his habits and 
character pique Edwards, who, in 
formal imitation of Lovelace, is made 
to assert that the woman who under- 
takes to reform him deserves what- 
ever fate impends ; and because she is 
a prude, shall be doomed. But the 
real Eliza was no prude: she was 
more than once reproached for not 
indicating by her manner the real dis- 
tinction between vice and virtue. 

"In the midst of his courtship, 

Edwards marries for money, and, 

when married, removes into Eliza's 

neighborhood, for the express pur- 
67 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

pose of insulting with his attentions 
the woman whom Howe and Buck- 
minster had loved. The simple fact 
is, that, married at nineteen, before he 
ever courted any other than his wife, 
at no time did he ever live nearer to 
Hartford than New Haven, when a 
weekly post, carried by a man on 
horseback, connected the two places. 

"Eliza is once made to say, in the 
pages of the novel, that, in literary 
conversation, Edwards coul3 not bear 
a distinguished part; but it is cer- 
tainly true of Edwards, as well as 
Aaron Burr, that when in the society 
of women, the highest culture, the 
most exquisite wit, and a perfect 
savoir faire, as well as a sure instinct 

of spiritual things, were added to that 
68 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

foreign grace which fitly distin- 
guished the Irish blood derived from 
the Dukes of Kingston. 

"The final surrender of his love by 
Buckminster, just as she was about to 
fix her wedding-day, is ma3e to turn 
upon the fact that he surprised her in 
a private interview with Edwards in 
the arbor of the old garden. Citizens 
of Hartford will show you to-day the 
paved street that crosses the spot 
where that arbor stood, but will tell 
you at the same time that it was not 
Edwards whom she met there. ^ 

"After this issue, the novel plunges 
Eliza into dejection and despair; but 
my letters^ are about to show her, at 

iMrs. Dall says that Colonel Wadsworth was 
with her. 
2 Miss Whitman's letters to Joel Barlow, 

69 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

that very moment, cheerful, industri- 
ous, and useful. 

"When her fatal departure draws 
near, the novel represents her as con- 
fessing her guilt, confiding in her 
friend, and writing to her mother; 
but no confession passed her lips, no 
confidence was ever given, no letter 
was ever written by her, for the 
simple reason that all the circum- 
stances of her departure were open 
and natural. 

"The novel represents her as car- 
ried away at night by her seducer, un- 
known to those who loved her. In 



printed by Mrs. Dall. These delightful letters 
written in 1779-1782, refer to many well known 
people. Edwards however is not mentioned. 
Barlow sailed for France May 25, 1788, to spend 
several years abroad as agent for a land com- 
pany. Mrs. Barlow and Elizabeth were very close 
friends. 

70 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

simple fact, she went away in the 
regular stage-coach, at high noon, 
with everybody's warm approval. 

"The novel describes its hero as 
aware of her retreat, and allows him 
to represent her as lecturing him with 
the innocent air of a Clarissa. For 
her sake, his injured wife quits her 
husband's roof. 

"But these are the fables of a warm 
imagination, intent on holding out 
Mrs. Yorke's "blood-red light" to the 
unwary, and heate3 by the reading of 
Richardson's novel. 

"The general tone of the letters 

which constitute the novel is wholly 

unlike that of the real letters. They 

indicate a style of living and manners 

wholly different from the actual facts. 
71 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

They contain confessions of volatility 
which Eliza never had occasion to 
make, and allusions to her own 
charms and the perplexities in which 
they involved her, unlike the humble 
and modest girl she really showed 
herself. In reading the novel, one is 
compelled to think that for the 
heroine the pivot of the world's his- 
tory is her own possible marriage. 

"If the real Eliza had been in the 
least like the heroine of the book, we 
should not now be seeking in vain to 
solve the mystery of her fate. 

"I have long thought that there is 
no form of human injustice so bitter 
and so enduring as that perpetrateS 
by the author of an historical novel, 

yet I do not know that we are entitled 

72 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

to criticise the use made of these 
materials/' 



7Z 



ELIZABETH AND HER 
FRIENDS. 



IV. Elizabeth and Her Friends. 

T TI /"E may now touch upon some 
of the problems which con- 
front every one who would know the 
true history of Elizabeth Whitman. 
The first question which was indeed 
of the greatest interest in Danvers at 
the time — her parentage — is easy of 
solution.^ Her father, the Reverend 
Elnathan Whitman, was at this time 
dead, having been pastor of the Sec- 
ond Church in Hartford for many 
years. He came of a line of minis- 
ters, and exhibits in his portrait a 

1 Elizabeth Whitman was baptized March 8, 
1751-2, by the Rev. Edward Dorr of the First 
Church in Hartford, the successor of the Rev. 
Daniel Wadsworth, father of Colonel Jeremiah. 

75 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

distinguished bearing and high in- 
tellectual attainments. Elizabeth's 
mother was Abigail, a daughter of 
Colonel Nathaniel Stanley, a promi- 
nent man, once Treasurer of the 
Colony, and connected by blood and 
ties of marriage with a group of 
families that had ruled Connecticut 
for generations. Portraits of Mr. 
and Mrs. Whitman hang upon the 
walls of the Athenaeum in Hartford. 

Elizabeth's kinsmen included the 
delightful circle of literary and mili- 
tary men and women in Hartford at 
the close of the Revolutionary war. 
Chief among these for his strong 
character and leaHership was Colonel 
Jeremiah Wadsworth, whose wife, 

Mehitabel Russell, was on her 
76 




ELIZABETH WHITMAN S MOTHER, 

MRS. ABIGAIL WHITMAN. 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

mother's side a Pierrepont and a niece 
of Mrs. Jonathan Edwards. The 
Colonel was a Commissary General of 
Purchases in the Revolution, and had 
recently returned home from service 
as a Commissary of the French army. 
Later he made a reputation as a 
representative in Congress. 

Among her own cousins on the 
Whitman side was John Trumbull, 
LL.D., popular as the author of 
''McFingal/' a satire on the tories of 
the Revolutionary period. His mother 
was a sister of Elizabeth's father. 

A still more famous cousin was the 

Reverend Jonathan Edwards of 

Northampton, whose mother was a 

sister of Elizabeth's grandmother. 

Edwards had married that "vision of 
77 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

God's spirit," Sarah Pierrepont, and 
became the father of Judge Pierre- 
pont Edwards, as well as the grand- 
father of Aaron Burr, vice-president 
of the United States. The Judge's 
handsome face and brilliant wit did 
not save him from the fate of becom- 
ing the victim of the historical novel- 
ist. He appears in The Coquette 
as Major Sanford, Eliza's lover, a 
villain of the melodramatic school of 
writers. 

Another kinsman of Elizabeth, 
the Reverend Joseph Buckminster, 
was like Edwards, a great grandson 
of the Reverend Solomon Stoddard of 
Northampton, just as she was a great 
granddaughter of the same divine. 

After an ardent courtship, in which 

78 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

she wavered between her growing 
affection for him and an irrepressible 
fear of his fits of terrible mental 
depression/ he became angry, made 
an end to their friendship, and moved 
to Portsmouth in New Hampshire. 
There he married, and had a son 
whose short but distinguished career 
as a preacher in Boston and as a 
member of the Anthology Society 
encouraged the literary spirit which 
had been awakened by Mrs. Hannah 
Foster's protege, Phineas Adams. 
Buckminster would never listen to 
an unkind comment on Elizabeth. 

Of the Stanley relatives of her 
grandfather, the Treasurer of Con- 

1 For an account of these see Mrs. Lee's 
biography of Buckminster, p. 17. For a possible 
veiled opinion of Elizabeth see p. 304. 

79 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

necticut, no more need be said than 
that they added to the circle their 
share of beauty and wit. 

Joel Barlow, whose poem, "The 
Vision of Columbus," had recently ap- 
peared, was a warm friend, and his 
beloved wife Ruth was perhaps her 
dearest companion. 

Elizabeth's letters to the Barlows, 
written between 1779 and 1782, are 
full of playful romance, literary com- 
ment and criticism, with overflowing 
sympathy for the poverty and trials 
of a poet's family. In April, 1779, 
EHzabeth writes: 

"Your 'plan' pleases me extremely. 

Whether it is romantic or not, I am 

not as yet able to judge, but I have 

done nothing but fancy fine things for 
80 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

you ever since I saw it. If I were to 
give the soberest opinion I can frame, 
I should say the foundation was laid 
in reason ; but your romantic imagina- 
tion had a little share in the finishing. 
I long to know what story you will fix 
upon for a poem of some eminence. 
It will not do for you much longer 
only to coquet with the Muses.'' 

And again in reference to a pro- 
posed subscription to raise the needed 
funds to publish one of Barlow's 
books, she writes : 

"Let me beg you, dear friend, not 

to be discouraged with regard to your 

design, though it should not proceed 

at this time, and above all things not 

to give yourself any uneasyness about 

what your friends have attempted. 
81 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

If it should not succeed, it cannot pos- 
sibly be of any disadvantage to you 
that I can think of .... I know your 
soul is as superior to the sordid love of 
wealth as your genius is to that of the 
generality of men. All I wish for you 
is a decent independence. That will 
enable you to gratify your favorite 
inclinations. If those who can help 
you to this will not, you must help 
yourself; for you will certainly meet 
with assistance. Keep up your spirits, 
and be certain of the constant affec- 
tion of your friends." 

Again in February, 1 780, Elizabeth 
writes : 

"Pray what has Quammeny [Mel- 
pomene, the Muse of Poetry] done 

with my song? If she has not fin- 
82 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

ished it, she is an idle hussy, and I beg 
you will set her immediately about it." 
And in May: "Give my love to 
Ruthe, and tell her that I do try to be 
as generous as possible, and do not 
begrudge you to her but a little. I 
will write the dear girl by the very 
first opportunity." The last letter of 
the series, written November 25, 
1782, is a long one to Mrs. Barlow, 
beginning : 

"My Dear Ruthe, — I thank you a 
thousand times for your letter and 
the agreeable news it contains. Will 
we admit you, do you ask, into this ex- 
cellent town of Hartford? Yes, with 
as much pleasure as a lawyer his 
client, or a lady her lover ; and rather 

than you shoul3 not have room, I 
83 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

should be willing to turn out several 
that I know of, notwithstanding that 
I always thought myself very public- 
spirited, and know that the riches of 
a community consists in the number 
of its inhabitants/' There is much 
in the letter about the fellowship of 
poverty and genius, evidently written 
to comfort Ruth, and a little about 
the duty of a father to a daughter who 
had married secretly the man of 
genius, for Joel and Ruth were still 
rather coldly received by Ruth's 
father. Elizabeth concludes: 

"Pray give my love to Joel, if he is 
returned. Mr. Wadsworth sends his 
to you, and thanks you for remember- 
ing him when you were at Ridgefield. 

Mamma, Abby, everybody, send love 
84 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

to you, and wish to see you. You see, 

my dear, I have no less propensity to 

write long letters than you have. 

Don't you think it is the sign of a 

fertile genius? But I must bid you 

adieu, for the present. 

E. W." 

As we recite the names of her 
friends may we not say, who indeed 
of the powerful and talented in those 
Connecticut days were not her ad- 
mirers? The blood which Elizabeth 
held in common with her two riotous 
cousins, Pierrepont Edwards and 
Aaron Burr, came from the Reverend 
Solomon Stoddard of Northampton, a 
nephew in turn of Sir George Down- 
ing,^ that baronet who so well repre- 

1 George Downing came to America in 1638 
with his father, Emanuel Downing, to whom the 

85 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

sented King Charles as ambassador to 
Holland. It was not, however, this 
blood which is said to have dominated 
the lives of Edwards and Burr, but 
the strain of the Pierreponts, received 
through a mother who as a child had 
gone "from place to place, singing 
sweetly,'' because she was "beloved of 
that great Being who made and rules 
the world" — through Sarah Pierre- 
pont, the great granddaughter of 
parson Hooker, the founder of Hart- 
ford! Elizabeth Whitman had none 
of the Pierrepont blood to account for 
her career. 



town of Salem granted a large farm at what is 
called to-day, Proctor's Crossing, Peabody, Mass. 
Here, writes Mr. Upham, George Downing spent 
his later youth and opening manhood, until he 
returned to England in 1645 ; having meanwhile 
graduated with the first class from Harvard Col- 
lege. 

86 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

The following poem shows Eliza- 
beth's affection for the Barlows, and 
her sweet womanly views : 

To Mr. Barlow, by his friend. Miss 
Whitman, on New Year's Day, 

1783- 

Should every wish the breast of 

friendship knows, 
Be to your ear conveyed in rustick 

prose, 
Lost in the wonders of your eastern 

clime, 
Or wrapt in vision to some unborn 

time ; 
The unartful tale might no attention 

gain, 

For friendship knows not like the 

muse to feign. 
87 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Forgive her then, if in this weak 
essay, 

She tries to emulate thy daring lay, 

And give to truth, and warm affec- 
tion's glow, 

The charms that from the tuneful sis- 
ters flow. 

On this blest morning's most auspi- 
cious rise, 

Which finds thee circled with domes- 
tick joys ; 

May thy glad heart its grateful trib- 
ute pay 

To him who shap'd thy course and 
smoothed the way, 

That guardian power, who, to thy 
merit kind, 

Bestow'd the bliss most suited to thy 

mind; 

88 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Retirement, friendship, leisure, 

learned ease. 
All that the philosophick soul can 

please; 
All that the muses love, the harmoni- 
ous nine, 
Inspire thy lays, and aid each great 

design : 
But more than all the world could else 

bestow. 
All pleasures that from fame or 

fortune flow, 
To fix secure in bliss thy future life. 
Heaven crown'd thy blessings with a 

lovely wife; 
Wise, gentle, good — O! every grace 

combinM, 
That charms the sense, or captivates 

the mind ! 

89 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Skiird every soft emotion to improve 

The joy of friendship, and the wish 
of love; 

To sooth the heart which pale mis- 
fortune's train, 

Invades with grief or agonizing pain; 

To point through devious paths, the 
narrow road 

That leads the soul to virtue and to 
God. 

O friend ! O sister ! to my bosom dear, 

By every tie that binds the soul sin- 
cere. 

O while I fondly dwell upon thy name, 

Why sinks my soul unequal to the 
theme ? — 

But though unskiird thy various 

worth to praise, 

Accept my wishes and excuse my lays. 
90 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

May all thy future days like this be 

gay, 
And love and fortune blen3 their 

kindest ray: 
Long in their various gifts may thou 

be blest, 
And late ascend the endless realms of 

rest.^ 

Elizabeth Whitman's first lover 
had been the Reverend Joseph Howe, 
pastor of the New South Church on 
Church Green in Boston.^ This early 
and close relationship led her in her 
dire distress in 1788 to appeal for aid 
to the Reverend Mr. Howe's family at 
Killingly in Connecticut. The Boston 

1 From the Massachusetts Centinel, September 
27, 1788. 

2 Pastor May 19, 1773, to August 25, 1775. — 
Bowen's Picture of Boston, 1833, p. 136. 

91 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

mail coach which she took at Hart- 
ford in May, on her intended visit to 
Mrs. Hill, wife of a very prominent 
Boston merchant, covered the "upper'' 
post-route by way of Springfield and 
Worcester. She must have left the 
coach at Worcester, for her letters 
show that she passed through Spring- 
field. Worcester was only a few miles 
from Killingly, the home of the 
Howes. 

A word more should be said of the 
Howe family, whose devotion to her 
in good fortune and in distress are 
the brightest strands in the tangled 
skein. 

The Reverend Joseph Howe was 

born at Killingly January 14, 1747, a 

son of the Reverend Perley Howe. 
92 



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THE STAGE ROUTE FROM WATERTOWN TO WEST 
HARTFORD (LOW's ALMANACK). 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

The father was a Harvard man, but 
Joseph graduated at Yale. Upon the 
recommendation of his college presi- 
dent Joseph was given charge of a 
public school in Hartford, probably in 
1765. The father had been a friend 
of the Reverend Elnathan Whitman, 
and the young man of eighteen was 
welcomed into the home. There he 
saw Elizabeth, the flower of the fam- 
ily, a precocious girl of thirteen. 

Howe was licensed to preach in 
1769, and soon became a tutor at 
Yale. Here until 1772 he taught and 
studied, being known and admired for 
his literary accomplishments, elo- 
quence and social qualities. At this 
lime he spoke of his "frail, weak, 

crazy constitution." In May, 1773, 
93 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

he was ordained pastor of the New 
South Church in Boston, where he 
had preached a year earUer while tar- 
rying to improve his health. 

If we may place any reliance what- 
ever in Mrs. Foster's story Eliza- 
beth's or Eliza's visits to Mrs. Sum- 
ner (Mrs. Hill) may have begun with 
a desire to hear and see Mr. Howe at 
the "New South." 

In the spring of 1775 British oc- 
cupation of Boston and the siege 
forced many families into the coun- 
try. The Quincys, Greenes and others 
accompanied Mr. Howe to Norwich. 
Here Howe's health failed rapidly. 
He went to New Haven, and upon his 
return stopped at Hartford to visit 

Elizabeth. Through three weeks of 
94 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

increasing illness she cared for him 
with untiring tenderness until he died, 
on the 25th of August. His biogra- 
pher has said that after making due 
allowance the contemporary eulogies 
show that he must have been a 
remarkable man. 

By a curious turn of the wheel of 
fate he lies in an unmarked and per- 
haps unknown grave, while the girl 
who but for his frail constitution 
would have graced his Boston home 
sleeps a few miles from Church Green 
in a spot that will be visited by 
strangers so long as love and mystery 
exert their sway. 

Joseph had three brothers, Isaac 
Cady Howe, Captain Perley Howe^ 

1 I am indebted to the captain's great grandson, 

95 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

and Sampson Howe. I have been un- 
able to determine surely to which of 
these Elizabeth appealed, but it ap- 
pears certain that they were not 
clergymen as Mrs. Mason, a relative 
of the family, supposed. 

A clue may be sought in the fact 
that after 1782 Sampson Howe was 
in Hartford once and sometimes 
twice a year as a representative from 
Killingly to the General Assembly, so 
that he doubtless met Elizabeth often. 
He was present in October, 1787, in 
January, 1788, and again in May. It 
is a fair inference that it was Samp- 
son Howe whom Elizabeth came to 
know well, and that Sampson and his 



Mr. M. A. De Wolfe Howe,^ and to Judge 
Daniel Wait Howe, for information. 

96 



t 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

wife Huldah are the persons who are 
said to have carried her to Water- 
town, or as seems much more prob- 
able to Worcester where she would 
again take the stage. 

Surrounded by the best of friends 
Elizabeth Whitman left them all, 
trusting that the loyalty and love of 
one man would bring him to her in 
the quiet of a distant town. Tradi- 
tion says that this one friend came, 
but by a cruel fate or perhaps by the 
exercise of a too cautious reserve he 
never found her. 



97 



ELIZABETH'S CHOICE OF 
DANVERS. 



V. Elizabeth's Choice of Dan- 

VERS. 

WHEN Elizabeth left the stage 
coach at Watertown to avoid 
Boston why did she go on to Danvers ? 
No reason has ever been given other 
than the evident one that Danvers 
was a quiet town with a well-known 
inn, far from Hartford. Her only 
guide to the choice may have been in- 
formation gleaned from an almanac, 
or Mr. Howe may have offered the 
advice which led her there. 

Is it possible that there was a more 
potent purpose in the selection ? Dan- 
vers is near Salem, and Salem in 

those days was important both as a 
99 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

sea-port and as a point on the post- 
route. If Elizabeth's lover was to 
come to her openly or in secret a town 
situated asDanvers was, haci manifest 
advantages. If he was a French 
officer (disguised by an American 
uniform), as has been often sug- 
gested, a sea port was indispensable, 
for they could then meet without forc- 
ing him to take a long over-land 
journey. 

In a letter written at Mrs. Ball's 
dictation and dated March 29, 1908, 
she says of Elizabeth : 

"Mr. Howe who had known her 
from childhood and believed fully in 
her integrity, took her with his wife 
in a carryall and drove her to Water- 
town where he put her into the charge 
100 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

of the lad who drove her to Danvers. 
These facts are perhaps known only 
to Mrs. Dall; Mrs. Mason^ who re- 
ceived them from her aunt and uncle 
above referred to, being now dead.'' 
Mrs. Dall thinks that this circum- 
stance settles the question of Eliza- 
beth's own belief in her actual mar- 
riage, and her friends' acceptance of 
it as true. Would Elizabeth, we may 
ask, have appealed to these Christian 
people to whom she was as a sister — 
more truly so perhaps because the 
grave of their brother sanctified their 
relationship — if she came as a victim 

1 Mrs. Mason of Virginia, a grand niece (?) 
of Reverend Joseph Howe. She said that Joseph's 
brothers were aged clergymen of East Killingly, 
one being settled there and the other, to whom 
Elizabeth went, not having any parish — so un- 
reliable are the details of a tradition ! — See Per- 
kins's Old Houses of Norwich, p. 338, for an ac- 
count of the Howe family. 

101 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

of sin? Must she not at least have 
believed herself married? Could she 
hope to deceive the Howe brothers, 
two young men of about her own 
age, one of whom was familiar with 
the political and social gossip of Hart- 
ford where she had lived? 

The tradition mentioned above that 
Mr. an9 Mrs. Howe of Killingly, car- 
ried Elizabeth some forty miles to 
Water town, seems improbable, al- 
though we have no facts to oppose to 
the statement. The more natural sup- 
position is that Sampson and Huldah 
Howe carried her back from Killingly 
to Worcester, where she took another 
coach of the same line and went on to 
Watertown. The western post road 

from Philadelphia, according to 
102 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Low's Astronomical Diary or Al- 
manack for 1788, left Bull's tavern at 
Hartford for Boston, stopping at 
Windsor, Suffield, West Springfield, 
Springfield, Springfield Plains, Wil- 
braham. Palmer, Western, Brook- 
field, Spencer, Leicester, Worcester 
(Pease's, Stower's, or Mower's tav- 
ern), Shrewsbury, Northborough. 
Marlborough, West Sudbury, East 
Sudbury, Weston, Waltham, and 
Watertown ( Willington's ) . 

It may be said, then, with some 
color of the truth that Elizabeth took 
advantage of Mrs. Hill's invitation 
to set out for Boston, perhaps accom- 
panying Mr. Howe on his return from 
the Assembly; that she decided to 

leave the stage at Worcester for a 
103 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

consultation in Killingly; and from 
Killingly she was carried by the 
Howes to Worcester, although pos- 
sibly they carried her all the way to 
Watertown. She then went on to 
Danvers. 

The next question which naturally 
arises is : Why Hid she wish to be in 
Danvers at a well known tavern ? And 
how had she heard of "The Bell ?" We 
know that Ezekiel Russell's Almanac 
was on sale in HartforS, since in 1778 
the scarcity of paper forced Mr. Rus- 
sell to announce that his Hartford 
patrons in order to be sure to obtain 
the next issue should leave their 
names with the local bookseller, Mr. 
N. Patten. 

We can thus almost see Elizabeth 
104 



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PAGE FROM BICKERSTAFF S BOSTON ALMANACK 

FOR 1779, SHOWING THE BELL TAVERN 

AND "mR. N. patten, BOOKSELLER 

IN HARTFORD/' 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Whitman early in 1788 as she turns 

over the leaves of an old copy of 

Russeirs American Almanac, and 

reads the statement that it was 

printed "next the bell-tavern in Dan- 

vers/' Nay more, she sees there a 

picture of the very building, rudely 

and quaintly drawn. 

Elizabeth at Danvers declined to 

have Mrs. Hill informed of her 

presence at the Bell Tavern. Was 

this due to her feeling of guilt ? She 

gave as her reason for withholding 

information from her friends her 

wish to go to them after her recovery. 

An3 she may reasonably have hoped 

to recover. But if this reason of hers 

was but an excuse for delay what 

could she have hoped to do had her 
105 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

baby lived? 

One man's explanation may be as 
good as another's. With the baby 
alive she may have hoped to touch the 
heart of *'Mr. Walker" and to induce 
him to acknowledge a marriage, or 
she may have hoped that by the time 
the baby was old enough to travel 
"Walker" would take her to another 
country to remain until circumstances 
so changed that he could acknowledge 
the marriage. 

Her visit to Mrs. Hill, if really in- 
tended, may have been abanHoned at 
the last moment on account of an in- 
timation from "Walker" that unex- 
pected circumstances had made im- 
possible an early acknowledgment of 

the marriage. Her stay with Mrs. 
106 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Hill under these conditions and with- 
out explanations which she could not 
offer would have been intolerable. 
With the baby dead — jand it was dead 
when she was most earnestly pressed 
to send for her friends — Elizabeth 
perhaps expected to go to Mrs. Hill 
with a tale of delay on the journey 
from Hartford, or illness which tem- 
porarily clouded her mind. In any 
event, a secret marriage being granted 
as possible, Elizabeth might have felt 
that she must at once acknowledge 
the man's name and so break a bond 
of secrecy, or she must settle the fate 
of her confinement before meeting her 
friends in Boston. We should remem- 
ber that the temptation to remain in 

seclusion until "Walker'' came — and 
107 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Upon his coming she constantly relied, 
saying finally in her anguish "You 
will come but you will come too late" 
— was the temptation to wait until 
she had seen the man, and could em- 
erge triumphantly. She staked her 
all upon this — and lost. To us the 
successful consummation seems diffi- 
cult or even impossible, but is this not 
true of every trageHy in a novel or on 
the stage? Without its mystery the 
story of Elizabeth Whitman would 
have been forgotten. 



108 



THE MAN OF HER HEART. 



VI. The Man of Her Heart. 

T F we could see those letters which 
-^ Elizabeth held over the coals as 
she lay upon her death bed at the Tav- 
ern there would be no reason for this 
chapter. We should know her secret. 
Tradition hints that Colonel Wads- 
worth knew this secret and shared the 
knowledge of her plans. He was fre- 
quently at her home late in the May 
evenings of the year 1788. He had 
been in France, and she had changeH 
French gold at the bank. Was this 
money his, or was he acting in behalf 
of a French friend of high rank who 

would not or could not disclose a 
109 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

secret marriage ?^ 

To a man of the world who has be- 
come a cynic a secret marriage would 
seem very improbable; but this was 
the very form of marriage uppermost 
in Elizabeth's mind. Her most in- 
timate friends, Joel and Ruth Barlow, 
had kept their marriage secret for 
almost a year, and Elizabeth knew 
their plans. To persuade her to take 
part in a secret marriage would not 
seem, therefore, strange or difficult. 

The question which will ever recur 
in the study of the real life of the 

1 There was no dearth of foreigners in Hart- 
ford and New Haven at this time. Dr. Ezra 
Stiles refers in his Diary August 13, 1787, to a 
"foreigner" whose letter to a friend in New York 
was published that the Doctor's style of funeral 
sermon might be held up to ridicule. The New 
Haven Gazette for November i, 1787, gives ex- 
tracts from Crevecoeur's letters, "by a French 
gentleman" who had recently returned from the 
"Western Country." 

110 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

heroine of Mrs. Foster's novel is this 
question of a secret marriage. Did 
she have a husband? Mrs. Dall be- 
lieves that she did, or at least that 
when she died, wearing a ring and 
protesting her sinlessness, she sup- 
posed that she was legally married. 

Mrs. Foster in her novel, with all its 
untruth, has convincingly (for the 
reader) placed the fatherhood of 
Elizabeth's child upon Pierrepont 
Edwards, her brilliant cousin, and has 
thus emphasized the idea that her 
lover already had a wife. She places 
Edwards in the arbor when Buck- 
minster surprises her there and leaves 
in jealous rage, never again to return 
to supplicate her favor. In reality it 

was her other cousin, Jeremiah Wads- 
Ill 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

worth, with whom she was in consulta- 
tion. But no breath of scandal has 
ever touched his honored name. Like 
Edwards, he continued to hold high 
office throughout these eventful days 
in Elizabeth's history. Edwards left 
New Haven at about the time she took 
the coach at Hartford for Boston ; he 
is recorded as in attendance on the 
Continental Congress at Philadelphia 
June 9, 1788. He returned probably 
in November, and was a member of 
the Connecticut House which met in 
Hartford in May, 1789, when he was 
chosen to preside. It is recorded that 
Mrs. Whitman wrote to him at Phila- 
delphia to ask if he knew where her 
daughter was, and he answered with 

an impatient oath that he ''wished to 
112 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

God he did."^ The above dates of 
course show that he was away until 
long after her fate had become 
known. It was not unnatural that his 
name should be associated with hers, 
for his reputation is said not to have 
been of the best. But he was a mar- 
ried man, of high political rank, and a 
mark for scandal in a community that 
could not rest until it had found some 
solution of a mystery. To mention 
his name was an easy and simple solu- 
tion, especially to those who love to 
think ill of men in high station. If 
the accusation which Mrs. Foster is 
said to make was widely accepted as 
true in Hartford in the winter of 
1788-89 it seems difficult to believe 

1 Romance, p. 74. 

113 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

that the convention, sitting in the 
same city, would have chosen Edwards 
to its highest place of honor. In Bos- 
ton when Perez Morton lay under 
similar charges it seemed to John 
Adams and James Bowdoin wise to 
appear in print in an attempt to clear 
his name.^ Could Hartford have 
been less sensitive if the people really 
believed that Edwards was guilty of 
dastardly misconduct ? 

What did Elizabeth think of the 
man who really was the father of her 
child? Are her verses applicable to a 
married man like Edwards, written as 
they were when the glamor of love 
must have cease3 to blind her eyes, 
and truth would, if ever, appear in her 

1 Massachusetts Centinel, October 8, 1788. 

114 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

lines ? 

In the poems which remain of those 
said to be in Elizabeth's handwriting 
there are passages which appear to be 
autobiographical. The first of these, 
called "Disappointment," has already 
been noticed. It seems to spring 
from real feeling, and gives unmis- 
takable prescience of "a Hoom so 
dreadful, so severe" that it must 
refer to conditions and events in 
Danvers. 

Let us return then to Pierrepont 
Edwards. Could it be true that in 
Elizabeth's days of courtship : 

"Sweet as the sleep of innocence the 

day, 

By transports measured, lightly 

danced away. 
115 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

To love, to bliss, the unioned soul was 

given. 
And — ah, too happy! — asked no 

brighter heaven," 

if her love was being given to her 
married cousin? Of him could she 
truly say : 

"E'en thy soft smiles can ceaseless 

prove 
Thy truth, thy tenderness, and love." 

She continues : 

"O, come once more, with soft en- 
dearments, come; 

Through favored walks thy chosen 
maid attend 

Where well-known shades their pleas- 
ing branches bend." 
116 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

The only theory consistent with 
Edwards would be a promise on his 
part to procure a divorce from his 
wife in order to be free to remarry. 

If Edwards was not her lover who 
was the man ? I have said that Colonel 
Wadsworth had been in France. 
Elizabeth had another friend who 
knew many distinguished French 
officers during a pastorate in Newport 
in 1756-77. This was Dr. Ezra Stiles, 
afterward president of Yale College. 
His Haughter Betsey^ was a dear 
friend of Elizabeth, and together they 
must have met many of the staff 
officers of Rochambeau and Lafayette. 
They spoke French fluently, and in 

1 The first wife of Rev. Abiel Holmes, father 
of Oliver Wendell Holmes. 

117 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

one of Elizabeth's letters Mons. Beau- 
tonaux, the French master at New 
Haven, is spoken of with affectionate 
banter/ If she married in secret a 
French officer high in rank the union 
with a Protestant minister's daughter 
might have endangered his paternal 
allowance and so been a reason for 
secrecy. When mother and child were 
dead the officer may have departed 
thoughtlessly, or even with the deter- 
mination to bury the adventure in her 
grave. If the marriage were legal 
and Colonel Wads forth knew of it 
one must believe that for his cousin's 
goo3 name he would have felt bound 



1 St. John de Crevecoeur and other distinguished 
Frenchmen had associations with New Haven. 
See Proceedings Mass. Historical Society, 
February, 1906, page 6^, etc. 

118 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

to make the fact public, even had he 
promised Elizabeth that it should 
never through him become known. 
But what his views were we cannot 
tell. 

The idea of a husband for Eliza- 
beth certainly had a place in her his- 
tory from an early date. Mrs. Mor- 
ton in her novel, The Power of Sym- 
pathy, written in the autumn of 
1788, gives on page 50 of the first 
volume a long account of Miss Whit- 
man to illustrate her contention that 
a young lady who imbibes her ideas of 
the world from desultory reading 
often falls a sacrifice to her credulity. 
Mrs. Morton says that Elizabeth 
"acquainted her lover of her situation, 

and a husband was proposed for her, 
119 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

who was to receive a considerable sum 
for preserving the reputation of the 
lady ; but having received security for 
the payment, he immediately with- 
drew." 

Is it probable that the gentleman 
had an opportunity to withdraw if the 
management of the affair was in the 
hands of either Edwards or Colonel 
Wadsworth? If so, they were not 
the masterful men we have reason to 
think they were. 

A vague tradition places Eliza- 
beth's lover in hiding at Danvers dur- 
ing her life at the Bell Tavern, where 
he could see her signal from day to 
day — a towel twisted into her blind — 
to inform him of her welfare. It 

would be difficult to believe that such 
120 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

a coward could have won her love, or 
that she could in her distress write of 
his delay in coming if she knew all the 
time that he was in town/ 

We have still another poem to con- 
sider, one which refers to unhappy 
events in Elizabeth's love life. The 
events described seem to point to a 
much earlier period of composition 
than the days in Danvers, but here 
again there is matter for debate. 

Two years after Elizabeth's death 
the following poem was printed in the 
"Centinel" as an unfinished frag- 
ment : 

"Thy presents to some happier lover 
send ; 



1 Mrs. Mehetabel C. P. Baxter (Mrs. James 
Phinney Baxter) tells me of this tradition. 

121 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Content thyself to be Lucinda's 

friend ; 
The soft expressions of thy gay 

design 
111 suit the sadness of a heart like 

mine ; 
A heart like mine, forever doomed to 

prove 
Each tender woe, but not one joy of 

love. 

"First from my arms a dying lover 

torn, 
In early life it was my fate to mourn ; 
A father next, by fate's relentless 

doom, 
With heartfelt woe I followed to the 

tomb: 

Now all was lost — no friends re- 
122 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

main[ed^] to guide 
My erring steps, or calm life's 
boist'rous tide. 

"Again the admiring youths around 

me bow'd, * 
And one I singled from the sighing 

crowd ; 
Well skill'd he was in every winning 

art, 
To v/arm the fancy, or to touch the 

heart ; 
Why must my pen the noble praise 

deny. 
Which virtue, worth, and honour 

should supply. 
O youth belov'd — what pangs [my^] 

1 Supplied by Mrs. Locke. If Elizabeth is in 
truth the author why does she ignore her mother 
v/ho remained to guide her steps to the very end. 

2 "His" in the Centinel. 

123 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

breast has born[e] 
To find thee false, ungrateful, and 

forsworn ; 
A stygeanMarkness o'er my prospects 

spread, 
The damps of night, and death's 

eternal shade; 
The scorpion sting, by disappointment 

brought, 
And all the horrours of despairing 

thought — 
Sad as they are I might perhaps en- 
dure. 
And bear with patience what admits 

no cure; 
But here my bosom is to madness 

mov'd, 
I suffer'd by the faults^ of him I 

1 "Shade and" in Mrs. Locke. 

2 "Wrongs" in Mrs. Locke. 

124 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

loVd; 
O! had I 'died by pitying Heav'n's 

decree, 
Nor prov'd so black, so base a mind in 

thee ! 
But vain the wish; my heart was 

doom'd to prove. 
Each torturing pain — but not one joy 

of love; 
Would* st thou again fallacious pros- 
pects spread, 
And woo me from the confines of the 

dead? 
The pleasing scenes that charm'd me 

once retrace 
Gay scenes of rapture and perpetual 

' bHss? 
How did my heart admire^ the dear 

1 "Embrace" in Mrs. Locke. 
125 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

deceit, 
And I myself request the pleasing^ 

cheat ! 
Delusive hope, and wishes idly^ vain, 
Unless to sharpen disappointment's 

pain! 
Could'st thou in language like the 

blest above. 

Point to my views that paradise of 
love, 

Could'st thou^ * jjc ^ * 
What significance are we to attach 
to these lines ? They lack the strength 
and passion of the poem, "Disappoint- 
ment." Elizabeth, if she is the author, 
refers to the death of Mr. Howe and 
then to the loss of her father. The 

1 "And fondly cherish the deluding" in Mrs. 
Locke. 

2 "Sadly" in Mrs. Locke. 

3 Columbian Centinel, August ii, 1790. 

126 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

next event would seem to be Mr. 
Buckminster's suit, although the 
young clergyman, depressed and ill 
much of the time during his frienid- 
ship with Elizabeth, could hardly be 
described as "well skilled in every 
winning art/' If we can possibly con- 
ceive the reference to be to a lover's 
quarrel with him and the ^'presents" 
to be peace offerings, the lines still 
have no connection with the tragedy 
of her 3eath. They are rather an ex- 
pression of disapproval of and grief 
over a vacillating lover. 

The description is not of Edwards, 
for he could not be called a "youth 
belov'd" in 1788 when he was thirty- 
eight. Nor is it probable that he sent 

her presents, accompanied by "soft 
127 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

expressions" of a "gay design," while 
he was attending to the business of 
Congress in Philadelphia, certainly not 
if he were the lover and thus knew of 
her condition. 

Mrs. Locke, in her introduction to 
The Coquette, reprints the poem, but 
she appears to alter the text from 
the ''Centinel" version with an ease 
which surprises a student of our day. 

Indeed, the whole question of Eliza- 
beth's poetry is made unsatisfactory 
by Mrs. Foster's evident hand in al- 
most every line. We cannot be cer- 
tain that the poems as they first ap- 
pear in a Boston newspaper were 
written by Elizabeth. But if they are 
from her pen the many alterations 

made in the versions given by Mrs. 
128 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Locke in her preface to the novel sug- 
gest revision also by Mrs. Foster be- 
fore they first appeared in print. 

Elizabeth's letters to the Barlows 
speak of her own poems so that we 
feel sure that she did write verses. 
But a careful examination of the con- 
temporary periodicals has not brought 
to light any poem bearing her name as 
the author. We can only hope that 
time will bring some evidence. 

A few words must now be said in 
connection with a name never before 
mentioned in the life of Elizabeth, 
The late Mr. Charles J. Hoadly, for 
many years state librarian of Con- 
necticut, had a theory in regard to the 
Elizabeth Whitman mystery which 

he would never divulge ; but after Mr. 
129 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Hoadly's death his copy of The 
Coquette was found to have been 
annotated in his own hand. Against 
"Major Sanford" stands the name of 
James Watson/ the first president of 
the New England Society in the City 
of New York and for a short time a 
United States senator. Watson was 
the grandson of John Watson of 
Hartford. He graduated at Yale in 
1776, and ten years later moved to 
New York where he became a wealthy 
merchant, a brilliant and handsome 
man, and the centre of an influential 
circle. President Stiles of Yale dined 
at his home a few months after the 
tragic death of Elizabeth. Would 



1 For a portrait and sketch see the Magazine 
of American History for January, 1884. 

130 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Dr. Stiles have sat at the table of a 
seducer of his daughter's intimate 
friend ? Or if Watson was guilty and 
the doctor did not know the facts how 
did Mr. Hoadly after a century 
obtain information which contem- 
poraries did not have ? 

At present we have no evidence to 
support the charge of guilt implied 
in this bare mention of Watson's 
name, so that we gain very little from 
this new conjecture. 



131 



A FINAL WORD. 



VII. A Final Word. 

•^ I "HE face of Elizabeth Whitman 
-*- can no longer be seen, for the 
miniature by Malbone has been lost.^ 
What would we not give to be able to 
look upon her features again ! To see 
her character depicted by a master 
hand and a discerning eye would set 
at rest some of the disquiet that has 
clung to her name. 

Readers of Mrs. Posterns novel are 
familiar with the heroine's alleged 
portrait in two forms. The engraved 

1 Romance, p. io6. 

The New London Gazette for Wednesday, May 
i6, 1827, states that on Wednesday, the 9th, the 
Whitman house was burned with the greater part 
of the furniture. It stood on Main Street, where 
Capitol Avenue (formerly called College Street) 
opens on to Main Street. 

133 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

portrait, which forms the frontis- 
piece of the eleventh edition of The 
Coquette, published by Abel Brown 
at Exeter in 1828, is from a paint- 
ing by John Jackson, the celebrated 
English portrait painter who 3ied 
in 1 83 1. The engraver of the plate 
was James Eddy, an excellent worker 
in stipple, who was in 1828 connected 
with William and John Pendleton's 
copper-plate and lithographic business 
in Graphic Court, Boston. 

Jackson exhibited one hundred 
and forty-six portraits at the Royal 
Academy between 1804 and 1830. 
Of these about thirty which repre- 
sented women were painted before 
1828, -although not more than half 

a dozen probably were engraved 
134 




ELIZA WHARTON, ENGRAVED BY 
JAMES EDDY. 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

and so could have reached Eddy's 
eye. A spirited portrait of Lady 
Georgiana Agar-ElHs, later known as 
Lady Dover, was engraved by S. W. 
Reynolds and issued February i, 
1824, by Colnaghi and Company. A 
glance at the reproduction in AlfreH- 
Whitman's ''Samuel William Rey- 
nolds" (London, 1903, opposite page 
108) will show the general resem- 
blance of Eddy's portrait to Lady 
Georgiana. If Eddy based his Eliza 
Wharton upon it, as seems probable, 
he made several important alterations. 
Eliza's face is stronger and more 
mature. Her mouth is firmer, and the 
face exhibits less hauteur. Lady 
Georgiana's beautiful ermine cloak is 

replaced by a simple empire dress, cut 
135 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

low, with elbow sleeves, ruffle trim- 
mings, and short waist — a fashion 
then popular/ Instead of drawing on 
her glove Eliza's left hand clasps the 
right arm. The hat with its plumes 
retains much of Jackson's character- 
istic grace of form; and the hair in 
both pictures is essentially the same. 

The fact that the Eddy portrait is 
reversed is in itself some evidence 
that it is a copy, in part at least. 

Assuming that the engraver copied 
the English beauty what interest has 
the frontispiece for us ? Did Eddy in 
making his alterations have the aid of 



1 The popularity of this dress is shown in a 
little book of copper-plate engravings for children, 
issued by Benjamin Johnson of Philadelphia in 
1813, with the title "The Farm, or a Picture of 
Industry." The women, whether raking hay, 
churning, or knitting, all appear in similar 
costume. 

136 




LADY AGAR- ELLIS, ENGRAVED BY 
S. W. REYNOLDS. 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

those who knew Elizabeth Whitman ? 
I think he must have been guided by a 
skilled adviser who proffered helpful 
suggestions, if this adviser did not, in- 
deed, have something like a sketch or 
a silhouette to offer. My mother's 
grandmother, Lucy Stanley of West 
Hartford (Mrs. Samuel Miller), who 
often visited at the Whitman home, 
maintained that this picture was ''a 
good likeness of Cousin Bessie Whit- 
man." Mr. J. Warren Upton, for 
many years librarian of the Peabody 
Institute, stated that his mother, who 
had seen and talked with Elizabeth, 
called it a correct likeness. 

We have also indirect evidence to 
support these assertions. The Eddy 

engraving of Eliza Wharton was sub- 
137 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

mitted to Mr. John Briggs Potter, 
keeper of paintings at the Museum of 
Fine Arts in Boston, a keen critic of 
portraiture. Beside it was laid a copy 
of the portrait of Elizabeth's mother. 
After a careful study of the two 
faces Mr. Potter declared that they 
exhibit ''no contradiction in type." 
The eyes and nose of the Eddy por- 
trait are singularly like what we 
might expect in an authentic portrait 
of Elizabeth Whitman. With this 
view everyone will agree. And it fol- 
lows that the portrait in the eleventh 
edition of The Coquette, whether or 
not altered from Jackson's Lady 
Georgiana Agar-EUis, has an abiding 
interest. 

Less moving because less forceful 
138 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

is the portrait used in the historical 
edition published by Fetridge in 1855. 
It appears to be merely a fanciful pic- 
ture of a young lady sitting by an 
open window, with a shawl about her 
arms. The dress has a close-fitting 
corsage, full above. The picture is of 
the Evangeline type, and suggests 
that the artist, Nathaniel Southworth, 
may have added to his work as a 
miniature painter by commissions for 
annuals of the Keepsake order. The 
engraver, G. F. Storm, was an Eng- 
lishman who spent a few years in 
America. 

If neither portrait has a proved 
resemblance to Elizabeth we still have 
the lovely face of her mother to aid 

us in our endeavor to make her being 
139 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

real. The daughter was distin- 
guished in bearing, and brilliant in 
conversation. As a girl she some- 
times resented her mother's admoni- 
tion to thrift by stamping her foot and 
exclaiming, "I won't stoop to pick up a 
pin, I vow." 

The Rev. Edwin P. Parker, pastor 
of Dr. Whitman's church in Hart- 
ford, has two precious relics of her 
early and happy days, a piece of green 
silk that once formed part of her 
gown, and an invitation to a dance, 
written on the obverse side of the six 
spot of spades — in the 9ays when 
playing cards were printed on one side 
only. The names, which represent 
families prominent in Hartford, are 

in script, the rest roughly printed with 
140 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 
a pen. The invitation reads : 

HARTFORD DANCING ASSEMBLY, 
THURSDAY EVENING, 6 O'CLOCK 
ADMIT FOR THE SEASON Miss E. Whitman. 
J. Bull \ 

C. Hopkins \ 

In this age of art and music, whole- 
some romances and social freedom, it 
is difficult to understand the distrust 
which the social pleasures of Miss 
Whitman, the Barlows and others of 
the younger literary circle in Hart- 
ford awakeneS, since we approve like 
enjoyment now. Society in a small 
New England city did not know the 
freer life then known in London or 
Paris, and it disapproved the faint 
echo which Elizabeth and her friends 

introduced. The Barlows and their 
141 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

associates lived a century before their 
life came to be the customary life. 
Therefore when a member of the 
circle fell under suspicion he or she 
suffered ten fold. We must read Mrs. 
Foster's philosophy of life and her 
admonition to the young, if we would 
know the rigid rules which were a 
part of the fibre of the period. The 
student of to-day must exercise a tem- 
perate judgment lest he condemn too 
severely the standards and ideals of 
other days. In her time and environ- 
ment Elizabeth Whitman could not 
expect compassion for her apparent 
sin. In our day transgression still 
brings its own retributive penalty, 
but we can judge temperately and 

may even withhold judgment until we 

142 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

know all. 

The public condemned the Rever- 
end Josiah Crawley, that consistently 
exasperating creature of Anthony 
Trollope's brain, but he was able to 
save himself within this world. 

Elizabeth Whitman as silently bore 
disgrace in her own circumscribed 
sphere, with no extending days in 
which to vindicate her course. Did 
she ever think of this as the night 
closed in upon her in that little corner 
room at the Bell Tavern? Did she 
ever falter? Yes, as all must falter 
before the opening door of an eter- 
nity. But she was of those who are 
unconquerable by circumstance; she 
knew her own heart, and bravely 

faced the future with sealed lips. 
143 



.^ 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

"It matters not how strait the gate, 
How charged with punishments the scroll, 

I am the master of my fate : 
I am the captain of my soul." 

Opinions never wholly agreed as to 
the innocence of "the stranger at the 
Bell," and that may be one explana- 
tion of the deep impression which her 
death has made upon the people of the 
town. For many years the children 
wended their way to the little green 
schoolhouse under the hill, a few steps 
from the grave of Elizabeth Whit- 
man. Some, coming from homes of 
doubt, avoided that grass-grown spot 
in their play among the headstones, 
oppressed by a dread that they could 
not understand. Others lingered there, 

knowing as little as did their play- 
144 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

mates, but conscious of the hush 
which fell upon their elders when 
Elizabeth's name was mentioned. To 
these, tradition would have us believe, 
the grave became in time a lovers' 
trysting place, for they held her to 
have been faithful unto the end. From 
the wide world year by year travellers 
have come to stand beside the grave, 
and they have chipped away the stone 
until its last sad line alone is legible. 
And to-day, having "the tears of 
strangers," she needs no other monu- 
ment. 



145 



NOTES ON VARIOUS EDI- 
TIONS OF "THE COQUETTE." 









COQUETTE 



•n, THE 



HISTORY OF ELIZA AYHARTON ;, 

■N O 'V E L;."'" 

FbXN'PED ON FACT. 



My a LADT of MASSACHUSETTS. 

• -^=25£5:s:^;2rr7 — 



A 



PRINTED BY S^Mf" L hriiZV MVZi- , 

FOR h. L A i< K I N, 



79; 



Ahi^tfMt, 



TITLE PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION OF THE COQUETTE. 



The First Edition 

The I COQUETTE ; | or, the | History 
of EHza Wharton ; | a | NOVEL ; | founded 
on fact. \ BY A LADY OF MASSACHU- 
SETTS. I Boston: | Printed by Samuel 
Etheridge, | FOR E. Larkin, | No. 47, 
CORNHILL. I 1797. 

12 mo., half-title, title, pp. 5—261, (1). 
Verso of page 261 has the copyright notice. 
Half-title reads : The | Coquette ; | or, the | 
History of Eliza Wharton; \ a | NOVEL. 
The Columbian Centinel advertises Septem- 
ber 6, 1797, the "Boarding School," by the 
author of The Coquette, showing that The 
Coquette must have been issued early in 
the year. [Peabody Historical Society; 
Lenox Library.] 

Second Edition 

The Coquette; | or, the | History of 
Eliza Wharton : | a | Novel ; | Founded on 
Fact. I By a lady of Massachusetts. | 
Charlestown : | Printed by Samuel Ether- 
idge, I For E. and S. Larkin, | No. 47, 
Cornhill, Boston. | 1802. 

149 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

8 vo. pp. 161. S. G. Drakes Sale 
Catalogue says "Original edition of this 
celebrated work." [Essex Institute.] 

Third Edition 

The I Coquette; | or, | The history of | 
Eliza Wharton. | A novel: | Founded on 
fact. I By a lady of Massachusetts. | Third 
edition. | Published according to act of 
Congress. | Newburyport: | Published by 
Thomas & Whipple, | Proprietors of the 
copy-right. | Sold at their Book-Store, No. 
2, State- Street — and by | Henry Whipple, 
Salem, Mass. | 1811. 

16 mo., pp. 242. [Boston Public Library.] 

Fourth Edition 

The I Coquette; | or, | the history of | 
Eliza Wharton. | A novel: | Founded on 
fact. I By a lady of Massachusetts. | Fourth 
Edition. | Newburyport: | Published by 
Charles Whipple. | Sold also by Whipple & 
Lawrence, Salem. | 1824. 

16 mo., pp. 303. Printed by T. H. Miller, 
Portsmouth. [Boston Athenaeum.] 

Eleventh Edition 
The I Coquette; | or, the | History of | 
150 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Eliza Wharton, | a novel: | Founded on 
Fact. I By a Lady of Massachusetts. | 
Eleventh edition. | Exeter: | Published by 
Abel Brown. | 1828. 

16 mo., pp. 264. Copyright by Brown. 
Frontispiece of ''Eliza Wharton" ; "J- Jack- 
son pinxt" ; *'Eng. & Printed at Pendletons. 
Eddy Sc." 

The thirtieth edition is from the same 
type, much worn, or from stereotype plates, 
and the portrait is a cheap reproduction of 
the engraving. The original engraving was 
used in 1829 by J. P. Peaslee of Boston 
for Mrs. Foster's ''Boarding School" where 
the lady appears as "Clara." This is the 
portrait with hat trimmed with plumes. 

The Essex Institute has the tenth edition 
with the same date and place of publica- 
tion. 

1831 Edition 

The Coquette; or, the History of Eliza 
Wharton, a novel: founded on fact. By a 
Lady of Massachusetts. Twelfth edition. 
New-York: published by J. P. Clusman. 
1831. 

18 mo., pp. 264. Frontispiece portrait of 
Eliza Wharton, "J. Jackson pinxt., Eng. & 

151 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Printed at Pendletons, Eddy & Co." [Lenox 
Library.] 

Thirtieth Edition 

The I Coquette; | or, the | History | of | 
EHza Wharton, | a novel : | Founded on 
Fact I By a lady of Massachusetts. | Thir- 
tieth Edition. | Boston: | Printed and Pub- 
Hshed by Charles Gaylord | 1833. [Con- 
gregational Library, Boston.] 

Thirtieth Edition 

A reprint was made in 1840. The copy 
in the Congregational Library in Boston 
has no portrait. Above the words "Thir- 
tieth Edition" there is a very black design, 
a heart pierced by an arrow, and encircled 
by a wreath, a lighted torch over all. [Con- 
gregational Library.] 

New Edition 

The I Coquette; | or, | the history of | 
Eliza Wharton. | A novel: | Founded on 
fact. I By I a lady of Massachusetts. | New 
Edition. | With an historical Preface, | and | 
a memoir of the author. | Boston: | Wil- 
liam P. Fetridge and Company. | 1855. 

8 vo., pp. 286. Preface pp. 3-30. The 

152 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

frontispiece, a lady seated with a shawl 
over her arms, curls, and no hat, has *'N. 
Southworth, del." ; '^G. F. Storm, Sc." For 
a review see the New England Historical 
and Genealogical Register, ix. 191. A news- 
paper notice states that ''Fetridge & Com- 
pany will publish Wednesday, Jan. 24th. 
[1855], The Coquette; or the history of 
Eliza Wharton. A Novel Founded on Fact. 
By a lady of Massachusetts, with an His- 
torical Preface, a memoir of the author and 
a Beautiful steel Engraving of Eliza Whar- 
ton, the ill-star'd victim of her aristo- 
cratic cousin, ''the most remarkable feature 
of whose character (says his biographer) 
was his unbridled licentiousness." In the 
Historic Preface the real names of the prin- 
cipal actors in this most affecting and la 
mentable Drama are for the first time given 
to the public by the daughter of the author 
who possesses peculiar means to ascertain 
the FACTS." [Boston Athenaeum.] 

Peterson Edition 

The Coquette; | or, the | life and letters 
of Eliza Wharton. | a novel, founded on 
fact. I By Mrs. Hannah Foster. | wife of 
Rev. John Foster, of Brighton, and daugh- 

153 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

ter I of Grant Webster, of Boston. | With 
an historical preface, | and a | memoir of 
the author, by Jane E. Locke. | Philadel- 
phia: I [1866]. T. B.Peterson & Brothers;! 
306 Chestnut Street. 

Copyrighted, 1866. 8 vo. pp. 302. Title 
page; copyright entry on reverse; pp. 17, 
18, "publishers' preface" ; pp. 19-46, "His- 
torical preface, including a memoir of the 
author." [Salem Public Library.] 

The I NEW ENGLAND COQUETTE | 
From the History of the | celebrated | 
ELIZA WHARTON. | a tragic i 

DRAMA IN THREE ACTS. | By J. 

HoRATius Nichols, author of | Jefferson 
& Liberty, Essex Junto, &c. | 
"In spite of all the virtues we can boast, | 
The woman who deliberates, is lost." | 

For savage man, the fiercest beast of prey, | 
Assumes the face of kindness to betray, | 
His giant strength against the weak em- 
ploys I 
And woman, whom he should protect, 
destroys. | 

Salem — Printed by N. Coverly. | 

16 mo. pp. 44, coarse brown paper covers. 

154 



ELIZABETH WHITMAN MYSTERY 

Some time before the second edition of 
Eliza Wharton in 1802, this Drama was 
published. 

We find in Felt's Annals, that N. G)verly, 
Jr., was a Printer in Salem in 1798 and was 
taxed there in 1802. He was in Boston in 
1803. [Essex Institute, Salem; Pea- 
body Historical Society, Peabody.] 



155 



INDEX. 

Adams, John, 55, 114. 

Agar-Ellis, Lady Georgiana, 1352, 138. 

"A Lady of Massachusetts," 1492, 1502, 1512, 1522. 

Annable, Nathaniel, 12. 

Anthology Review, 52. 

Barlow, Joel, 44, 46, 69, 70, 80, 81, 842, 87, no. 
Barlow, Mrs. Ruth (Baldwin), 46, 70, 80, 832, 

843, no. 
Barlows, 80, 87, 129, 1412. 
Baxter, Mrs. Mehitabel C. P., 121. 
Beautonaux, Monsieur, 118. 
Bell Tavern, 9, 11-142, 262, 28, 322, 332 41, 57, 61, 

104, 1052, 109, 120, 143, 144. 
"Boarding School," i^i. 
Bolton, Mrs. Sarah K., XIII, 12. 
Boston, zi, 51, 52, 592, 62, 95, 103, n4, 134, 149, 

1523. 
Boston Athenaeum, 150, 153. 
Boston Public Library, 150. 
Bowdoin, James, 55, 114. 
Bowen's Picture of Boston, 91. 
Brighton, 51, 153. 
Brooks, Henry M., 46, 47. 
Brown, Abel, 134. 

Buckminster, 54, 68, 69, 78, 79, in, 127. 
Burr, Aaron, 68, 78, 85, 86. 

Cenci, Beatrice, 9» 56, 57- 

"Charlotte Temple," 54. 

"Clarissa Harlowe," 53, 54, 71. 

Clusman, J. P., 151 

Columbian Centinel, 126. 

Congregational Library, 1522. 

Connecticut, 12, 34, 35, 44, yd, 80, 85, 91, n22, 129 

Cousins, Frank, 48. 



INDEX 

Coverly, Nathaniel, 154, 155. 
Crawford, Marion, 9. 
Crawford, Mary C., XII, 10. 
Crevecceur, St. John de, no, 118. 
Curiosos, 24, 58, 61 2. 

Dall, Mrs. Caroline H., 24, 25, 28^, 44, 45, 65, 69, 

70, 100, I0l2, III. 

Danvers, 10, 112, 13, 14, 242, 272, 33, 44, 572, 61, 

75, 99-101, 1042, 1052, 115, 120. 
"Disappointment," 15, 16, 57, 58, 61, 115, 126. 
Dorr, Rev. Edward, 75. 
Dow, George Francis, XII. 
Downing, Sir George, 852, 86. 
Drake, S. G., 150. 
Drowne, Mrs. Isaac, 13. 

East Boston, 42. 

Eddv, James, 134-138, 151. 

Edwards, Mrs. Jonathan, 77. 

Edwards, Rev. Jonathan, 772. 

Edwards, Judge Pierrepont, 66-70, 782, 85, 86, 

iii2, 1122, 1142, 116, 1172, 120, 127. 
"Eliza Wharton," 22, 43, 532, 66-69, 72, 78, 94, 

135-137, 1493. 155. 
Essex Institute, 150, 151, 155. 
Etheridge, Samuel, 1492. 
Exeter, 134, 151. 

Felt's Annals, 155. 

Fetridge, William P., 139, 152. 

Fetridge & Company, 153. 

Foster, Mrs. Hannah, 43, 45-47, 51-54, 5^-, 62-64. 

79, 94, iii2, 113, 128, 129, 133, 142. 

Foster, Rev. John, 51, 153. 

Fowler Papers, 12. 

Frye, Isaac, 27. 

Frye, Miss Mary P., 27. 

Frye, Miss Serena, 27. 

Gay lord, Charles, 152. 

Goodhue, Capt. WilHam, 11 3, 33, 37, 38. 

Goodspeed, Charles E., XIII, 38. 



INDEX 

Hanson, 2y, 31, 61. 

Hartford, Xni2, ^,'X7, 44, 51, 53, 64, 68, 69, 752. 

762, 83, 92-94. 90, 99, 102-104, 107, no, 112, 

114, 130, 1402, 1412. 
Harvard, 37, 93. 
Herald of Freedom, 57. 
Hill, Mrs. Henry, zi, 44, 45. 62, 92, 94, 103, 

105-107. 
Hoadley, Charles J., 129-131. 
Hoadley, George E., 53. 
Howe, Judge Daniel Wait, 96. 
Howe Family, 92, loi. 
Howe, Mrs. Huldah, 97, 102, 104. 
Howe, Isaac Cady, 95. 

Howe, Rev. Joseph, 24, 66, 68, 91-95, toi, 126. 
Howe, Mark Anthony De Wolfe, XIII, 96. 
Howe, Captain Perley, 95. 
Howe, Rev. Perley, 92. 
Howe, Sampson, 96^, 99-104. 

Independent Chronicle, 59. 
Invoice, 37-43- 

Jackson. John, 1342, 138, 1512. 

Killingly, Conn., 91, 922, 96, 102, 1042. 

Lafayette, 117. 

Larkin, E, 149. 

Larkin, E. and S., 149. 

Lee, Mrs., 79. 

Lenox Library, 149. 

Locke, Mrs. Jane E., 26, 51, 123-126, 128, 129, 154. 

Low, Nathaniel, 11, 103. 

Magazine of American History, 130. 

Malbone, 133. 

Mason, Mrs., 96, ioi2. 

Massachusetts Centinel, 11, 16, 22, 24, yj, 55, 58, 

6i2, 91, 114, 121, 123, 128. 
Massachusetts Historical Society, 118. 
Massachusetts Spy, 57, 61. 
Matthews, Albert, XIII. 



INDEX 

Miller, Mrs. Samuel, 137. 

Miller, T. H., 150. 

Morton, Perez, 55, 114. 

Morton, Mrs. Perez, 172, 54, 55, 57, 62, 63, 1192. 

N. E. H. & G. Register, 153. 

Newburyport, 1502. 

New Hampshire, 68, 79. 

New Haven, 182, 662, 94, no, 112, 118. 

New Haven Gazette, no. 

New London Gazette, 133. 

New South Church, 91, 942. 

New York, 59, no, 151. 

Nichols, J. Horatius, 154. 

Northampton, yy, 78, 85. 

"Old Burial Ground," 31, 32. 

Osborn, Lyman P., XH. 

Osborn, Mrs. Lyman P., XH, 28, 29. 

Parker, Carl Rust, 28. 

Parker, Rev. Edwin P., XH, 140. 

Patten, Nathaniel, 104. 

Peabody Historical Society, XII, 13, 149, 155. 

Peabody, Mass., n, 31, 34, 155. 

Peabody Institute, Peabody, Mass., XII, 137. 

Pendleton, William and John, 134, 151. 

Pendletons, Eddy & Co., 152. 

Peaslee, 151. 

Peterson, T. B. & Brothers, 154. 

Philadelphia, 102, 112, 128, 136, 154. 

Philbrick, Miss Helen, 29. 

Pbilbrick, Samuel, 29. 

Pierrepont, "77, 86. 

Pierrepont, Sarah, 78^ 86. 

Poole, Fitch, 41. 

Portsmouth, N. H., 79, 150. 

Post Chaise Route in 1788, 92, 102, 103. 

Potter, John Briggs, 1382. 

Proctor, Sylvester, 322. 

Putnam, Dr., 28. 

Putnam, Alfred, 288. 

Putnam, Dr. Amos, 28. 



INDEX 

Putnam, Deacon Gideon, 282. 
Putnam, Dr. James Phillips, 28. 
Putnam, John Pickering, 28. 

Richardson, 71. 

Rochambeau, 117. 

Romance of the Association, 25, 65, 113. 

Romance of Old New England Churches, 10. 

Rowson, Mrs. Susanna H., 54, 552. 

Russell, Ezekiel, 13, 1042, 105. 

Russell, Mehitabel, 76. 

Salem, 11, 992 150, 155. 

Salem Gazette, 41. 

Salem Mercury, 11, 2"], 28, ZZ, 37, 60. 

Salem Public Library, 154. 

South Dan vers, 31. 

Southwick, Mrs. Bethia, 26, 27, 29. 

Southwick, Eliza, 29. 

Southwick, Joseph, 26-29. 

South worth, Nathaniel, 139, 153. 

Springfield, 36, 92, 103. 

Springfield Republican, 24. 

Stanley, 54, 55, 79- 

Stanley, Miss, 54-57. 

Stanley, Abigail, 76. 

Stanley, Lucy, 137. 

Stanley, Col. Nathaniel, 76. 

Stiles, Betsey, 117. 

Stiles, Dr. Ezra, no, 117. 130, 131. 

Stoddard, Rev. Solomon, 78, 85. 

Storm, G. F., 139, i53- 

Stow, 51. 

Sun Tavern, Salem, 11. 

Symonds, 23. 

Terry, Nathaniel, 53, 54. 

The Coquette, 26, 43, 47, 62, 632, 66, 78, 128, 130, 

134, 138, 147, 1494, 1503, 151, 1522, 1532. 
The New England Coquette, a drama, 154. 
The Power of Sympathy, 54, 62, 119. 
The Hartford Wits, 65. 
The Vision of Columbus, 80. 



INDEX 

Thomas & Whipple, 150. 
Trask, Amos, 428. 
Trumbull, John, y^. 

Upton, J. Warren, 137, 

Very, Mrs., 29. 

Wadsworth, Daniel, 53, 54. 

Wadsworth, Rev. Daniel, 75. 

Wadsworth, Col. Jeremiah, 54, 69, 75-77, 84, 109. 

Ill, 117, 118, 120. 
Walker, Elizabeth, 24, 262, 28. 
Walker, Thomas, 11 3, 35, io63, 107. 
Watertown, 10, 34, 97-100, 102-104. 
Watson, James, 1302, 131 2. 
Watson, ^ohn, 130. 
Webster, Grant, 51, 154. 
Westfield, Conn., 12, 34. 
Wharton, Eliza, 22, 43, 53, 66-69, 722 78, 94, 

135-137, 149-155. 
Whipple, Charles, 150. 
Whipple, Henry, 150. 
Whipple & Lawrence, 150, 
Whipple, Thomas &, 150 
Whitman, Dr., 140. 
Whitman, Mr. and Mrs., 76, 112, 138. 
Whitman, Mrs. Abigail, ^(i, 84, 112, 138, 139. 
Whitman, Mrs. Wm., 54. 
Whitman, Billy, 53. 
Whitman, Miss Elizabeth, XII, XIII, lo, 14, 

24-29, 32, 35, zy"^, 38, 41-46, 49-51, 53, 55-573, 
592, 6o2, 622-65, 69, 70, 75-772, 802, 82, 85, 
87, 91, 942, 96,-105, 107-112, 114, 115, 117-1212, 
123, 126-130, 133, 137-139, 141-145- 

Whitman, Rev. Elnathan, 51, 75, 76, 93, 126, 140. 

Whitman family, 44, yy. 

Whitman house, 53, 137. 

Whitman, Deacon John, 51. 

Wood, Mrs. Emma (Trask), 42. 

Worcester, 923, 97, 102-104. 

Yale College, 53, (£, 932, 117, 130. 
Yorke, Mrs., 71. 



JUL B ^9^8 



LIBRARY 




